WWE 2K17

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: Yuke's and Visual Concepts
Genre: Wrestling
Series: WWE (Previously SmackDown! and SmackDown vs. Raw)
Released: October 11 2016
Certificate: 16
Consoles: PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows

It's been a strange couple of years for wrestling games, or more specifically, WWE games. The highly-praised SmackDown! and SmackDown vs. Raw series entered a lull in the late 2000s, but the flagship titles rebounded somewhat with the nostalgia-based WWE '13 and WWE 2K14. Then came WWE 2K15, the first foray onto eighth-generation consoles, and everything took several steps back with the game generally feeling incomplete and limited, which damaged much of the goodwill raised by previous entries. WWE 2K16 thankfully corrected many of these faults, ensuring that the series was back on the right track.

And so we come, then, to WWE 2K17. The third WWE game on PS4 and Xbox One promised a lot during the initial hype period, and since the honeymoon period for the series on current-gen consoles was now well and truly over, expectations were raised that this could be the best wrestling game in a long, long time - if not a potential contender for best game ever. Unfortunately, while 2K17 delivers tremendous entertainment in a lot of ways, it also has many areas for potential improvement which, combined with a lack of growth in other feature sets, results in a game which is by no means bad, but is generally a disappointment.

The biggest problem is the lack of a truly major single-player mode. The days of Season and Road To WrestleMania - which offer a true-to-life opportunity to work through WWE storylines, along with voiceovers and the usual creative twists and turns - have given way in recent years to a classic match option, whereby you relive memorable eras, matches or feuds from the annals of WWE history. Some of these (Attitude Era) were better than others (Hall Of Pain), but it had a vast amount of potential with literally an unlimited number of possibilities. It also provided a logical reason to include characters from the past, some of whom might not have ever featured in a WWE game had it not been for this mode, recently referred to as 2K Showcase (I'm thinking of Savio Vega and Mikey Whipwreck in 2K16).

However, the decision was made to remove Showcase from 2K17 - with no replacement whatsoever. In fairness, the development team basically admitted that they wanted to do a Brock Lesnar career retrospective Showcase, but not being able to include certain wrestlers from the past (presumably referring to Kurt Angle, Hulk Hogan and possibly CM Punk and Rob Van Dam) meant that they felt it would have been inadequate, and therefore the decision was made to not have a Showcase at all. However, it leaves a gaping hole in the game, especially since the team didn't try to replace it with, say, a revamped Season mode or even the return of the old Challenge option. Plus, while the Lesnar story may not have been workable, there are still tons of possibilities which could have been explored, such as the infamous Bret Hart-Shawn Michaels feud, the John Cena-Edge rivalry or even a career retrospective for The Undertaker, who has had literally tons of memorable matches which could have been spotlighted. Granted, we're getting a Hall Of Fame Showcase amongst the downloadable content, but measuring in at only six matches, it can hardly be described as the main single-player mode in the game. This was a concern beforehand when it was confirmed that there would be no Showcase, and thus it has proven to be a real problem with the lifespan of 2K17. Hopefully, we will get the return of a proper Showcase and/or the return of another mode (Season, maybe?) in 2K18, because there should be plenty of evidence here to show that a WWE game featuring neither mode is a let-down.

It wouldn't be so bad if MyCareer was an outstanding alternative, but it isn't. As with MC in 2K15 and 2K16, the mode is a slog to play through, and Paul Heyman aside, nobody provides any voiceovers, which hampers the experience further. It is the best version of MyCareer in a WWE game to date, but it's still nowhere near as enjoyable as Showcase. It's not even that the concept doesn't work; it has been very successful in the NBA 2K series, and it has a lot of potential in a WWE setting too. The execution is just poor, lacking the energy and fun that career-based modes have in the past. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if MyCareer was dropped from 2K18, because three games in, the idea just isn't working, and unless major changes are made for next year's game, I would go so far as to say that many fans would rather the mode not be included again in 2K18.

Mind you, at least PS4 and Xbox One players have the option to play MyCareer if they so choose; the mode remains absent from the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, and with Showcase not included on any platforms, the only main single-player mode for what were once the franchise's two most vital consoles is Universe mode. If that sounds poor for a game which comes in at the mid-£30 range on said platforms, then it is. Fortunately, Universe is the best that it's ever been, largely due to the decision to incorporate the new Promo Engine into the mode, which fills in some of the blanks during storyline angles and gets the mode ever closer to the old Create A Story option. In fact, given the amount of control one now has over Universe - you can now save up to three different Universes at one time, allowing you to drift between, say, a modern WWE and an Attitude Era version of WWE, or to recreate the current WWE brand split, or even to create a vintage WCW - it is very close to being the ultimate wrestling videogame mode for fans. Granted, the Promo Engine is limited and some of the pre-written lines are questionable, but it's a good start, and it should really come to life in 2K18. If the development team lean back ever-so-slightly on the CPU involvement in creating unforeseen twists and turns, Universe could be something truly special next time out, but even so, this mode is the best of the non-Exhibition options in 2K17 (there is one other new feature within Universe which I will explain a bit later). On second thoughts, maybe PS3/Xbox 360 users were the lucky ones.

The matches themselves play out in very similar fashion to those in 2K16: with the exception of new controls for the Chain Wrestling system, which are a lot less frequent than in the two previous titles, the control scheme is almost exactly the same, and there are new move and taunt options, particularly when interacting with the turnbuckles. Taunts help to build energy and popularity rather than momentum, unless they are used at vital parts of the match. The body damage skeleton now displays throughout matches rather than a character photograph on the HUDs, and it has additional colours to show even more damage than usual, allowing you to truly recognise when your opponent has taken enough punishment for you to win the match. Multi-man bouts now have a Roll-Out feature which allows your character to take breathers and break up pins and submissions in dramatic fashion. The infamous mega ladder used in classic Money In The Bank matches can now be used during MITB or TLC battles. And the matches now have a star-rating system, which takes into account how many different moves you use during a bout, any signature moves and finishers, any OMG! moments, back-and-forth reversals and pre- and post-match attacks (yes, you can now carry on the action after the match ends, essentially giving you an extra minute or so of combat), and the ratings - which unsurprisingly go up to five stars - provide you with a certain amount of Virtual Currency to use in the VC Store (more on this later).

That all being said, I still found the matches to be inferior to those in 2K16. The main flaw is that the action is just too slow; we may not necessarily want to return to the days when matches moved at a rapid-fire pace in the early SmackDown! titles, but the matches are slow enough that they reduce excitement and entertainment. Plus, some of the redesigned move animations are poor; Brock Lesnar's F5, in particular, is the most careful-looking version of the move that you will ever see. I can certainly understand 2K's desire to make the game a wrestling sim to rival the action we see on Raw and SmackDown every week, but even the real-life matches don't move at such a slow pace as the bouts do here (and some replay clips of matches are slower still, although I assume this is a glitch rather than by design). Truth be told, I was hoping that the matches would be quicker this year than they were last time, and given the promised improvements, the 2K17 bouts had the potential to be the best ever (there's also the option for a new submission system which rectifies the problems with the old analog-based engine), but unfortunately the stupidly slow pace lets down what would otherwise be very good gameplay.

As for the match types themselves: on PS4/Xbox One, the big addition is the return of the Backstage Brawls. A corridor backstage feeds into the locker room and the Authority's office, which you can burst into at any point during no-rules matches, and which boast several weapons and points of interaction (Triple H is humorously standing in his office watching the chaos unfold;, Stephanie McMahon replaces him when he is causing the mayhem himself). This is mostly a success; there's a lot of fun to be had from running amok, especially when you can do silly things like chasing off a wrestler who is being interviewed backstage. What's more, you can finally battle in the crowd again, with one specific area providing an almost hidden pathway for you to make your way backstage or even back to the ring from the other side of, erm, ringside. And unlike past games, you can hop into the crowd during any matches, even if it's not Falls Count Anywhere, so you could draw your opponent towards the area, leave him laying in the crowd and return to the ring to pick up a countout win, for example. Although there's no balcony to hit insane dives like in SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 or SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, the crowd battles are still a highlight of the game, and coupled with the Backstage Brawls, these will be the situations that I envision most people finding themselves in when playing 2K17; they provide a lot of entertainment, the likes of which we haven't seen in the game for a long time.

Without being too much of a negative Nancy, though, it's a shame that three games into the current videogame console generation, there are still so many missing match types. We still haven't got Inferno, First Blood or I Quit bouts on PS4/Xbox One, even though said match types remain in the PS3/Xbox 360 versions. There's also plenty of tag and three/four-way options which have yet to come over to the newest consoles, and some have even been taken away, like the Six-Man Tornado Tag Elimination Chamber option (which was actually removed in 2K16, to be fair). It's no surprise that the older platforms don't have any new match types to speak of themselves, but at least they still have the in-depth Match Creator feature which has also yet to make its way to current consoles (meaning you could create the likes of Finisher or Flaming Tables bouts with a couple of selections). This is an area which the development team really needs to get their fingers out and sort, because we're not as far off as you may think from the inevitable announcements of the next PlayStation and Xbox consoles (Christmas 2017 will be the fifth winter season for PS4 and Xbox One), and yet this particular series has still yet to catch up with the match options available on the older models.

As for the roster: as with other areas of the game, it has positives and negatives. To be frank, after DLC the game will boast a whopping 178 playable characters, a new series record, and that doesn't include created characters. What's more, there are many debutants like AJ Styles, The Four Horsewomen, Asuka, The Revival, American Alpha, Shinsuke Nakamura and more. Plus, there's the return of Alberto Del Rio and The Dudley Boyz, even if they all no longer wrestle for WWE. On the downside, though, DLC aside the game provides very few new retro characters: all of the "new" legends which are already on the game disc have been in previous games, even though their returns here are welcome (Road Dogg, Diesel and Razor Ramon; and the last two have the alternate Kevin Nash and Scott Hall characters which were in 2K16 as well). It's nice that the likes of The Natural Disasters, The Bushwhackers and Rick Rude keep appearing, along with the usual big names such as Steve Austin, Ultimate Warrior and Sting, but it just feels a bit - lazy, I guess. This is where the lack of Showcase really becomes noticeable, because that mode alone would have given us around 10-12 extra characters from the past. Plus, managers have been purged; we had more than 20 in 2K16, but this time we only have six after unlocking Bobby Heenan and Ted DiBiase (and why is DiBiase only playable as a manager again?). And as contradictory as this may read, there are some notable removals from 2K16 amongst the regular wrestlers, like Ken Shamrock, X-Pac, Batista and Roddy Piper.

The DLC helps to redeem the roster situation somewhat with Psycho Sid, Tatanka and Greg Valentine making their series debuts along with returns for Eddie Guerrero and Brutus Beefcake, not to mention those who will arrive as part of the Hall Of Fame Showcase DLC (even though Terry Gordy and Stan Hansen are inexplicably absent). Most notably is the return of Goldberg as the pre-order DLC; to be fair, he was in the game as recently as 2K14, but his collaboration with 2K led to the on-screen feud with Brock Lesnar being revived, his stunning 86-second win over Brock at Survivor Series and further likely showdowns in 2017. As a matter of fact, the Goldberg tie-in makes this arguably the most famous wrestling game ever, since it directly impacted upon major WWE encounters during its most crucial time of the year.

I'll get the final gripes out of the way now: the arena selection is also extremely lazy, with a dozen retro arenas which have all appeared in recent games serving as the only unlockable venues before DLC, which may be the game's biggest limitation of all compared to 50+ venues in the last two games (although we can now toggle between day, evening and night for outdoor arenas like WrestleMania 31, which is a nice touch). The commentary is again suspect, particularly JBL's almost bored contributions at times. Also, I'm not sure if this is an opinion shared by the majority, but I feel the graphics on PS4/Xbox One have taken a step back. Maybe the novelty of the modern videogame graphics have worn off, or they've improved to a level that can't be built upon until we reach the ninth videogame console generation, but something just doesn't seem right; at times, it feels like one is playing the PS3 version as opposed to the PS4 game based solely on the graphics. And this is something which I've never commented on in past games, but the development team has made the strange decision to give almost every character white pupils in their eyes. This may not sound like a big deal, but it is when you see that all the characters look almost alien-esque, especially Dana Brooke who literally looks unreal. That the character models now appear instead of their real-life photographs on the character selection screen only hammer this home, and form part of the reason why the graphics appear to be inferior to those in 2K16.

On a more positive note (thankfully), the creative suite is superb. Create A Wrestler is as advanced as ever; you can now give wrestlers hair dye, and you can even shape a character's buttocks (I hope this doesn't extend to a certain point in 2K18 if you know what I mean). Create An Arena is the best yet, with some incredibly deep options and the ability to add props such as ladders and UK postboxes to the aisleways, as well as the chance to create outdoor venues spanning the aforementioned times of the day. Create A Show has been improved exponentially; when you incorporate created shows into Universe, you'll now have a full show intro complete with pyro, signature videos and even theme songs for events. (Incidentally, I like how different features intertwine; for instance, you design a venue in Create An Arena, tag it to a show in Create A Show - which you must do to play in it, by the way - and then use it to its full potential in Universe.) The choices are admittedly limited and some, such as Raw circa 1998, are incorrect, but others (like the late 1980s version of Saturday Night's Main Event) are authentic, and the whole thing has great potential heading into 2K18. Create A Championship also has significant improvements; it's very easy to create real-life titles, including those not affiliated with WWE, in just a matter of moments. Create A Team hasn't changed really, and Create An Entrance hasn't been altered massively either; that being said, the latter now allows you to splice parts of different themes together, which is pretty cool, and you can now decide which characters act in which role during team entrances such as that of The New Day. New to the game are Create A Video, which uses the returning Highlight Reel to allow you to create custom entrance videos, and Create A Victory, which allows you to create a celebration scene after a hard-fought victory. There's still no return for Create A Finisher, but hopefully that will come next year.

The best part, though, may be the Logo Manager. Rather than taking ages to create close-to-real versions of, say, the Hulkamania logo or the new Raw logo, you can now use the Logo Manager, in conjunction with your home computer, to import the actual images into the game, and use them as much as you want. This extends to photographs, which helps when trying to get a particular wrestler's face spot-on (or even your own, if you plan to create yourself!). Even if you don't want to import the event and wrestler logos yourself, there's always Community Creations, where you'll find loads of almost-perfect recreations, many of which will already have the actual images imported. Overall, it's probably the best overall creation suite ever provided in a WWE game, with only minor tweaks and Create A Finisher needed to make it practically flawless in 2K18. This and the crowd-based and backstage brawling are the absolute best parts of this year's game.

Elsewhere on the game, characters now move around and pose during main menus, which becomes very funny when the likes of Big E start randomly gyrating. I mentioned the VC Store before; this is where you can spend your Virtual Currency on hidden wrestlers, arenas and titles, and it's nice that Exhibition allows you to build up VC rather than focusing solely on the main modes. You can now pick which referee you want for every match, although it's mostly a case of picking which shirt an official wears rather than choosing between real-life refs in the manner of Raw 2. The soundtrack has been updated - it was apparently picked by P. Diddy - and is hit and miss, although you can once again use wrestler themes for the menu soundtrack (if you want to listen to wrestler themes in full, go to Create A Show, as the menu versions only last slightly longer than one minute). Lilian Garcia announces names when you pick them for matches, as well as announcing when certain people are eliminated from the likes of Royal Rumble matches, and the commentators discuss the upcoming match on the pre-bout loading screen (one such instance saw JBL inexplicably laugh nonstop for several seconds with no explanation). And should you attack Xavier Woods during his entrance, you can pick up his trombone and start playing it, which may be the highlight of the entire game (seriously, try it with a no-nonsense character like Brock Lesnar or Steve Austin, because the visual is hilarious).

Before wrapping this review up, I have to mention that the original version of the game is rife with glitches (AJ Styles' entrance was a massive let-down during my first match for this reason), meaning you'll have to download the updated file of the game to remove said errors. Unfortunately, this takes an incredibly long time, so you may want to do this the day before you plan to play it for the first time (honestly, it takes that long), not to mention that certain glitches and errors remain in the game even after the update. Speaking of downloading, I felt the DLC price was really high this year; the Season Pass costs £25 and doesn't include any of the pre-order DLCs or the MyCareer bonus, meaning that to purchase all DLC costs almost as much as the game itself. I can remember getting the classic SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain for just under £27 on PS2 in my local store; 2K17 with all the DLC, at its original retail price, goes well over £100, and you don't need me to tell you which game is the better of the two.

And yet WWE 2K17 had the potential to be just that, which is why it's such a shame that it is a let-down in quite a few areas. It promised a lot, and it does deliver on much of this, but its limitations, its questionable pace and graphics, its lack of a major single-player mode, its lackadaisical attitude to the roster and feature sets and the other usual problems that the series can't seem to overcome all combine to hamper the entertainment value of the game. If you can ignore the plethora of issues, then you'll probably really enjoy 2K17; as I mentioned, the crowd scraps and backstage fights are loads of fun, the creation suite is tremendous, and there are a large number of minor adjustments (such as picking a referee) which suggest that there's a lot of attention to detail when it comes to building upon 2K16. In the end, though, I would suggest that those who already own 2K16 may want to exercise caution, or wait for a sale, before committing to buying 2K17.  The strange thing is that it wouldn't take a lot of effort or imagination to fix the issues that this game has in order to make the next edition, WWE 2K18, a truly epic release, and the best wrestling game that we have ever seen. And as I noted before, it's hardly a disaster of 2K15 proportions. Nevertheless, those who still rely on No Mercy for N64 or SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 for PS2 can probably save their money for another year. In summary, 2K17 is a lot like WrestleMania 32, the biggest WWE event of 2016; it has its moments and truly shines in places, but as an overall experience, it is inferior to the previous edition, with 2K16 playing the role of WM 31.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10 - Good

WWE 2K14

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: Yuke's and Visual Concepts
Genre: Wrestling
Series: WWE (Previously SmackDown! and SmackDown vs. Raw)
Released: October 29 2013 (US) and November 1 2013 (UK)
Certificate: 16
Consoles: PS3 and Xbox 360

So, at last we have the much-hyped WWE 2K14, the latest instalment of the lengthy WWE videogame series, and the first to be published by 2K Sports. Considering the quick turnaround after THQ folded in early 2013, it was likely that this would be a transitional game in some ways, and that is the case, with little in the way of major new features and a greater emphasis on minor tweaks, for the large part. However, the changes which have been made are almost all for the better, resulting in arguably the greatest WWE videogame since the mid-2000s.

Let's start with 30 Years Of WrestleMania, a mode which celebrates WWE's biggest event through a series of matches from the history of the show, along with in-game challenges. If that sounds familiar, it's because the WrestleMania Tour option from the 2009 game WWE Legends Of WrestleMania offered something very similar. Where 30 Years exceeds WM Tour is that the mode covers the entire history of WM so far (WM 29 is the most recent Mania so this is where the mode ends, despite its name), with a load of unlockables, photos and video content in the manner of last year's Attitude Era mode, and with a greater range of characters and a larger spotlight on the entire legacy of WrestleMania.

The mode is one great gem. From the early years where we can play as Hulk Hogan against the likes of Andre The Giant, Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior, to the New Generation battles that involves Shawn Michaels in famous Ladder and Iron Man bouts against Razor Ramon and Bret Hart, onto the Attitude Era and showdowns as part of the Steve Austin-Rock trilogy, into the time of Ruthless Aggression with major main events for John Cena and Batista, and up to the modern day with the Cena-Rock main events and big showdowns for The Undertaker against Michaels and Triple H, there are so many hugely memorable matches, which provide a load of standout moments. As well as those listed above, there's the classic Savage-Ricky Steamboat match, the unforgettable Bret-Austin Submission match, the Hogan-Rock generational battle and more.

As part of the mode, every single WrestleMania arena is here (and a template WM 30 venue is also available outside of the mode), along with dozens of big stars from over the first three decades of Mania (more on them shortly), and a lot of authentic attires from all of those major matches. As an added bonus, we get a lot of cool added touches, from the pre-match promos by the likes of Savage and Shawn (with the real-life interviews spoken by their videogame counterparts) to the true-to-life cutscenes (such as Ric Flair crying before Shawn superkicked him into retirement at WM XXIV) to the realistic atmospheres (we even get the "You sold out!" chants for Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar from WM XX). And the last match, Rock-Cena II from WM 29, takes on the feel of a final battle from Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat as you enter a super-tough yet ultimately exciting showdown and exchange of finishers and finisher reversals, mirroring what went down that night in MetLife Stadium.

There are some absent matches, including Warrior vs. Savage from WM VII, Austin-HBK from WM XIV and Taker-Michaels I from WM 25. But that's easy to forgive when the mode as a whole is this fun; it is the best relive-matches mode ever in a wrestling game, and it is arguably the best single-player mode in a WWE game for a decade, if not longer. It is that good.

Like WWE '13, there is unfortunately no Season or Road To WrestleMania story mode, but 30 Years is not the only single-player option available. We also get The Streak, which celebrates another major aspect of Mania, that being The Undertaker's incredible undefeated record. This takes on two forms: playing as one of Taker's WrestleMania opponents and attempting to defeat him at said Mania (and Taker puts up a great fight, unsurprisingly), and playing as Taker himself in a never-ending Gauntlet match similar to the old Slobber Knocker option. The Gauntlet bit doesn't quite match what Taker has to do every year to retain his Streak, but it's fun nonetheless, and playing to defeat The Phenom is even more fun; my attempt to beat Taker as Shawn Michaels was actually one of the most fun and realistically dramatic matches I've ever played on a wrestling game.

I mentioned the roster earlier; another massive selling point of 2K14 has to be the line-up. Whereas last year combined the WWE rosters of 1997-1999 and 2011-2012, here the 2012-2013 crew is bolstered by the biggest names from the previous three decades, via their WrestleMania history. Just look at this line-up of stars: Rock, Cena, Hogan, Austin, Michaels, HHH, Bret, Undertaker, Warrior, Savage, Lesnar, Punk, Orton, Andre, Goldberg, The Shield, Mysterio, Eddie, Jericho, Sheamus, Big Show, Bryan, Hall, Nash, Kane and many more. Even Bruno Sammartino makes an appearance as DLC. Of particular note, Hogan makes his first appearance on a flagship WWE game for seven years, despite being under contract to TNA, and we finally get Warrior's debut in the series after appearances in Legends Of WrestleMania and All-Stars (Warrior is the pre-order exclusive). There are so many huge names, many making returns (Goldberg is here for the first time in ten years) or debuts (Razor Ramon and Scott Hall both finally represent the Bad Guy in the series), along with a great line-up of stars from today's WWE (including a series debut for the three members of The Shield). This has the best roster ever in a wrestling videogame; there are only a couple of absentees preventing this being a perfect roster (one of whom, Roddy Piper, is included as a non-playable during 30 Years mode).

The gameplay is tweaked very slightly, but just enough to make matches a little more user-friendly, resulting in a wrestling engine that, whilst not flawless nor massively in-depth, stands as the best in the series for almost a decade. Meanwhile, Universe returns with a few neat changes, and a cool new feature is the Music Jukebox, whereby you can play superstar themes in full and assign them as tunes to play when scanning through menus (certain wrestlers have multiple themes via 30 Years; one of them is the old-school WM song circa 1993-1998, which is awesome!). Matches in old-school arenas have a cool-looking visual effect which makes them look dated (as if you're watching on an old, busted-up television set). The sound is improved mildly so that SFX such as ring bells and weapon blows sound more authentic, as well as having wrestlers speaking during their entrances more frequently (like Sheamus shouting "Fella!", Ryback mouthing "Wake up!" and Fandango reminding people of his name post-match, although Daniel Bryan yelling "No!" as fans respond "Yes!" is the highlight). There are a few more OMG! moments, including Antonio Cesaro-inspired throws into the air for the likes of uppercuts or RKOs, and the chance to hit two opponents with one finisher (think of a stacked Shell Shocked or a stacked Attitude Adjustment). Oh, and a wrestler's Twitter handle now appears on the pre-match namebars.

The final big changes come via the long-established creation suite, which now boasts Create A Championship for the first time since SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, and an option to add real-life Superstar Heads to created wrestlers (which helps if you're creating, say, Mankind or the Straight Edge Society version of CM Punk). Lastly, you can now create 100 wrestlers which, combined with a final roster total of 103 (and that is already star-studded to the max), results in a potentially enormous line-up of wrestlers to mix and match with.

There are some downsides to the game: backstage brawling is not improved upon; there are no new match types; and whilst the wrestling engine is the best it's been for years, it still feels like it's lacking in depth, as alluded to earlier on. The lack of a story mode is not as glaring as in WWE '13, but it's still noticeable. The roster could still do with a few more legends, despite the line-up being packed with star power (besides Piper, there's also The Legion Of Doom, Demolition, The British Bulldog and others who have appeared in games not too long ago). And there is an annoying trend of finishers not being enough to, erm, finish off your adversaries. However, for a game which beforehand seemed like a WrestleMania-based version of WWE '13, this does so much more right than wrong, and is fantastically enjoyable.

Is WWE 2K14 as good as WWF No Mercy, SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain or SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006, the top three greatest WWF/WWE wrestling games ever? Erm, not quite; the flaws, whilst minor, do have merit. Is it the best game since that trio of greatness? Absolutely. In fact, with an additional story mode and a slightly more complex wrestling engine, this very well could have been a contender for Best Wrestling Game Ever. As it is, though, WWE 2K14 is superb; the outstanding 30 Years Of WrestleMania mode, the fantastic roster, the bundle of match options, the refined wrestling engine, the generous number of small yet valuable additions, the increased and more user-friendly creation suite and the entertainment provided by Universe and the new Streak mode, all combine for a terrific wrestling game, the best in almost a decade.

Overall Rating: 9/10 - Outstanding

WWE 2K15

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: Yuke's, Visual Concepts and n-Space (Mobile versions)
Genre: Wrestling
Series: WWE (Previously SmackDown! and SmackDown vs. Raw)
Released: November 18 2014 (US), November 21 2014 (Australia) and November 21 2014 (UK)
Certificate: 16
Consoles: PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Android and iOS

The WWE videogame series, which seemed to have peaked in the mid-2000s under the SmackDown! and SmackDown vs. Raw names, appeared to be making a comeback earlier this decade: WWE '12 set the series on a new path in terms of gameplay, with a surplus of content provided by WWE '13 and WWE 2K14, resulting in the best games since the heyday of WWE titles.

This, combined with a new publisher in the form of 2K Sports and the potential advancements that new technology could provide with the fresh PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles, all suggested that WWE 2K15 could have ended up being the greatest wrestling game ever seen.

Erm, not quite.

WWE 2K15 does have a lot of positive aspects, but unfortunately these are counter-balanced by features which don't work, features which are limited, or features that have been dropped altogether. As I will explain, 2K15 is arguably the weakest offering of the entire series.

Let's start with the positives, then. We finally have a series debut for the legendary Sting (who is the pre-order exclusive with two characters, and the commercial promoting this pre-order bonus was superb), as well as first-time appearances for The Wyatt Family, Adrian Neville, Paige, Sami Zayn, Rusev, Bo Dallas and several other characters. Amongst the legends are top names like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Steve Austin, The Rock, Randy Savage and more. Rob Van Dam is back, and CM Punk and Alberto Del Rio sneak in despite them having both left WWE during the preceding year. In addition, there are more arenas than ever before with a final count of 52 venues that cover four decades.

The graphics on PS4 and Xbox One look outstanding; wrestlers have never looked so lifelike. Crowd audio is slightly better (the crowd themselves look more lifelike too; we get children in the audience for the first time, fans taking camera phone pictures, and audience members aimlessly wandering during shows), as is the commentary to a lesser extent. Meanwhile, the single-player mode, renamed 2K Showcase, focuses on key rivalries and career spotlights. These include the Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H, John Cena vs. CM Punk and Randy Orton vs. Christian feuds, as well as retrospectives on The Ultimate Warrior and Mark Henry. These include many stand-out matches for each section, complete with authentic arenas and costumes, and a load of cool unlockable items.

Then there's MyCareer, a brand new mode which shares traits with Career modes in other 2K titles, such as NBA 2K. This essentially sees you build up a created wrestler's, erm, career, from training in the WWE Performance Center through to NXT and then onto the main roster. And the wrestling engine has been worked upon to include chain wrestling exchanges to open matches, more realistic stamina and object detection (for example, wrestlers towards the end of matches may hit a finisher but stay down themselves, and then crawl onto their fallen opponent to make a cover attempt), new pinfall/submission bars and the first proper HUD bars for wrestlers in a WWE game in years to track momentum.

Add to that the ability to create brand new costumes from scratch for existing wrestlers, the return of licensed music for the game's soundtrack (including the modified version of Flo Rida's Wild Ones as used for WrestleMania XXVIII) and the most authentic presentation yet in a WWE game (we even get Bray Wyatt and company's scary "lamb face" cut-away after their matches), and you have a potentially fantastic wrestling game, right?

You do indeed. But "potentially" is the key word here. Because whilst WWE 2K15 boasts all of these cool new features or improvements, there are a bucketload of negatives to drag down the game's quality.

Let's begin as we did with the good points: the roster. Despite all of the names listed above being included, the line-up as a whole is greatly inferior to that of 2K14, which boasted the vast majority of WWE's biggest ever names. Bret Hart, Mick Foley, Goldberg, Eddie Guerrero, Bruno Sammartino, Razor Ramon, Scott Steiner and many more are all absent, and have been replaced by ... nobody. Really, compared to last year's who's who of legends, this year's retro crew is much weaker. In addition, there are far too many duplicate characters who are totally unnecessary. While the Ministry-era Undertaker, the 1990s version of Shawn Michaels or the "Corporate Champ" iteration of The Rock could at least be differentiated from their modern-day counterparts, here we have two Rybacks, duplicates for The Usos, three characters for Sheamus and Mark Henry, and four - yes, four - for Randy Orton, the majority of which are completely unnecessary (two of the Orton characters are from weeks apart on SmackDown circa 2011). The final character count is actually a series record 114, but the number of actual unique characters is around a quarter smaller than that figure, which is a big drop from 2K14. Why? I do not know.

Still, at least there are plenty of match types, right? Erm, no. Because 2K Sports, presumably due to the sudden leap to PS4/Xbox One, have removed a ton of well-established match stipulations, with no replacement whatsoever. Inferno, I Quit, Gauntlet and even Ladder matches (except for the six-man Money In The Bank formation) have all been taken out. This is a real kick in the goolies for longtime fans, especially since some have been around for years (Ladder matches have been in the game since 2000!). And with nothing in their place! Considering the higher price for 2K15 compared to its predecessors, this is extremely questionable.

Never mind, there's always the in-depth creation suite. Right, erm, how do I break the news ...

You can no longer create arenas, championships, stories, logos or female wrestlers. Oh, and you can only make 25 wrestlers, compared to 100 in the last game. What - I'll quote Steve Austin here, what - were the game developers thinking? A weaker roster, far fewer match types, and a downsized creation suite? Oh, and Superstar Threads is gone; so while you can assign brand new attires to existing wrestlers, you can only save them as created wrestlers (of which you only have 25 slots, remember) rather than alternate costumes. How on earth can all of this be justified in suggesting that WWE 2K15 is the best wrestling game to date? Awful, just awful.

Sadly, that's not the end of the drawbacks. The brand new wrestling gameplay is well-intentioned, but the execution is poor. The chain wrestling is almost impossible for new players to get to grips with, meaning that this sound-on-paper addition is best left ignored. The HUDs are cool, but since a selling point of recent games was a lack of on-screen extras to make the viewing experience more authentic, this feels like a step back. The new animations are good, but otherwise matches are at times a struggle, and even a chore in some situations. Surely not the outcome that 2K Sports were looking for. To be fair, the ideas are good; they're just not executed very well, so if these can be tweaked for the next game, perhaps we'll move forward in this department.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention: the new wrestling engine doesn't apply to the PS3/Xbox 360 versions. On the one hand, that isn't a bad thing considering the poor execution of some in-ring aspects, but it does make owners of those consoles feel shafted, especially since PS3/Xbox 360 were the main consoles for the game as recently as 2K14. Meanwhile, the previous-gen consoles also lack the MyCareer mode completely - that's right, that mode isn't available on PS3 or Xbox 360 - and the replacement mode, Who Got NXT, is ridiculously tough and its rewards - several NXT competitors - doesn't justify the massive amount of work required to complete it. The graphics are shocking on those consoles, with Vince McMahon in particular looking nothing like his real-life self. That the PS3 and Xbox 360 do retain the previous match sets and creation suite are the only selling point for these versions, as it's clear that the game developers were not particularly interested in the platforms on which the series was focused for close to a decade.

Elsewhere, unless you adjust the difficulty right at the beginning, the Showcase modes can be very difficult and consequently frustrating, and basing one of the modes (albeit via DLC) on Mark Henry is an odd decision; there are at least 50 wrestlers on the game who fans would have chosen to spotlight instead. The DLC itself is hit-and-miss, since the WCW pack chooses to focus on lesser-remembered gimmicks rather than true giants of Starrcade, Nitro, Thunder etc. Like with the wrestling engine, MyCareer has good intentions, but once again the execution and difficulty are the stumbling blocks; one is more likely to abandon the mode in anger rather than battle to complete it. Chances are you'll purchase the full DLC offering which includes the automatic unlocking of all hidden items. Did I mention that the Season Pass DLC doesn't even cover all of the unlockable content, meaning you'll have to pay even more?

There are other flaws (such as no longer being able to assign custom themes to wrestlers during entrances), but I'll leave it at that for now, as I've covered the main problems. It isn't hard to realise that WWE 2K15 falls way, way short of its potential. I mean, this was supposed to be the best wrestling game ever, and yet it contains so many problems (and I haven't even mentioned glitches) and removes so much without providing anything new, all for a bloated price, that it is a huge let-down. Yes, there can be issues when switching to new consoles/technology, but even those games which had a transition feel to them for that very reason (WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, both considered disappointments themselves at the time) were nowhere near as limited as this game is. It's as if the developers rushed to get 2K15 on PS4 and Xbox One without considering how poor the final product would be.

Perhaps it would have been better to not have had WWE 2K15, and to have instead provided Sting, Bray Wyatt and friends, the main Showcase stories and the new/returning arenas as DLC for the far superior 2K14. There would have been a big outcry, but given the choice, I'd have preferred that option, which would have included the developers to prepare this series properly for the new generation of consoles, resulting in a far better videogame. Maybe 2K16 will fix the issues that this game has; it really needs to, if the series is to continue onwards.

If you have WWE 2K14, I would actually suggest that you think carefully about whether this game is really worth buying. Even during its weaker years, I've always thought that this series provided a good game at worst, but I am not sure that 2K15 has even achieved that standard. The rating below is earned because the Showcase mode does have its moments, there are some cool new wrestlers amongst those who do make it onto the roster, and the intentions are good with the gameplay and MyCareer. But the downsizing of so many core features, the poor execution in other key areas and the belief that fans would actually want to pay more for this negative combination, leads to a game that only avoids a truly dire rating because it just about provides enough entertainment in its main single-player option and has much-anticipated roster additions.

Far from the new industry standard that I was hoping for, WWE 2K15 is a major disappointment, and the worst game of a series which began in the year 2000. WWE 2K16 now becomes crucial, because this game has so many issues that the next step could very well determine whether the 15-year-old franchise even has a future.

Overall Rating: 5/10 - Average

WWE 2K16

Image Source: Zavvi

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: Yuke's and Visual Concepts
Genre: Wrestling
Series: WWE (Previously SmackDown! and SmackDown vs. Raw)
Released: October 27 2015 (US), October 29 2015 (Australia) and October 30 2015 (UK)
Certificate: 16
Consoles: PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows

The latest WWE videogame was under big pressure to deliver. The much-ballyhooed 2K15 was a low point for the long-running flagship WWE series, with many features removed for the PS4/Xbox One iterations and a lack of real development for PS3/Xbox 360 copies. If 2K16 flatlined, it could have sent WWE games on a downward spiral from which it could take years to recover.

Fortunately, 2K16 is a big improvement on the previous entry in the series. Not everything is perfect; that's an understatement. But enough features have been restored, along with some nice improvements across the board, that this year's WWE game provides a far more satisfying playing experience.

Perhaps the biggest area of growth concerns the roster. 2K15 actually had the largest character total to date with 114, but so many were duplicates, and a significant number (particularly those offered as downloadable content) were so unnecessary, that the actual number of different characters was closer to the 80-90 range, a step down from the Attitude Era-based WWE '13 and the star-studded 2K14. 2K16 has definitely made amends in this area, though, with the final character total being a whopping 165! Yes, there are duplicates here too, but they are generally more logical than in 2K15, and even without them, the number of unique characters sits around the 140-145 mark, a massive improvement upon the last game. It is by far the largest WWE roster ever in a videogame.

Amongst those, we get plenty of debuts, largely for NXT-associated talent like Finn Balor, Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe (available as DLC). That being said, the absence of Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Bayley is a real head-scratcher considering that lesser NXT names of the male gender are here, and especially since Sasha had supposedly been scanned for the game several months back.

In addition, old favourites return, including Bret Hart, Jake Roberts and all three faces of (Mick) Foley, and there are some new legends, largely of the "do you remember them?" category such as Savio Vega, Haku, D'Lo Brown and even ECW alumni Mikey Whipwreck. That being said, some major names (like Goldberg and Eddie Guerrero) are absent, and Hulk Hogan was removed after his racism scandal back in July 2015 (making it four games that Hogan has been taken out of by my count), so despite the vast numbers, it isn't quite the best roster to date. It is undoubtedly the biggest, though, and few will be dissatisfied by the line-up, which uniquely brings over many of the legends we had in 2K15 (such as the Triangle Of Terror, headed up by Sgt Slaughter). Oh, and the pre-order exclusive consists of Arnold Schwarzenegger's characters from the first two Terminator movies. Erm, okay.

Some of those characters are unlocked via the Showcase modes, which this year are centred around the career of Stone Cold Steve Austin and, as DLC, a spotlight of the 2015 Hall Of Fame inductees. Both are fun to play through, and Austin's is significantly longer and covers almost every key moment of his career (matches with Owen Hart aside; the scuttlebutt is that said bouts were originally included but later removed). The downside is that we played through many of Austin's key battles in previous games (his WrestleMania XV showdown with The Rock has now been seen in four games, with three of them coming in the last four years), so it does get repetitive at times. The mode is still a treat, though: not only are Austin's most famous matches included, but we also get some rare bouts from WCW and ECW, and several memorable meetings not seen in Attitude Era mode from WWE '13 (such as the Three Stages Of Hell clash with Triple H from No Way Out 2001). The lack of authenticity at times hurts, not least during Austin vs. Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania XIV, where Mike Tyson is replaced by a white DX "enforcer", and the arena itself looks haphazard (several items look different to how they did in reality, or even in previous games which had the WM XIV arena).

It's definitely a fun single-player mode, although I personally would have preferred at least one other lengthy Showcase trek to keep this from feeling like WWE '13 part two. Austin's Showcase explains why he is the cover star of the game, a controversial decision considering that Austin hasn't wrestled since 2003, thus making the current roster look weak. Overall, though, it's a good if not exactly flawless Showcase option. As noted, we also get a 2015 HOF inductees Showcase, which is a nice if brief tribute to the latest inductees, and hopefully this marks the beginning of a trend for future games.

MyCareer has been developed to include more authentic situations once you reach the main roster, such as having the option to join the Authority. It still feels like something is missing, or that the playing experience feels a little bit dull in its early stages, but it is easier to get to grips with than the same mode in 2K15. Universe hasn't changed much, and the complex interface combined with the suitcase full of mini challenges make this seem bloated. Perhaps this is something that 2K should really look at for the next game, because after six incarnations, Universe still feels like it falls short of its potential.

If you're playing 2K16 for the regular matches, you'll be happy to learn that several popular match types have been reinstated after inexplicably being omitted from 2K15, not least the one-on-one Ladder match. Other bouts are back in, too, although the match set is still weaker than what we had in 2K14 (still no returns for the Inferno or I Quit matches, for example). I should point out that if you purchase the PS3 or Xbox 360 version, you will get more match types because those iterations haven't changed since 2K14; however, they lack the gameplay changes which the current-gen versions have, so it's swings and roundabouts really.

Speaking of gameplay: after the in-depth yet poorly-executed wrestling engine for 2K15, 2K have thankfully tweaked the gameplay experience to make the wrestling far easier to pull off in this game. The chain wrestling is much easier to get to grips with; I quickly realised what was going on and how to execute said moves properly, as opposed to spending months without success on the same system in 2K15. We also get more options for ground strikes, rest hold submissions, sitting/kneeling moves and apron attacks, a limited number of reversals for each character (which refresh during bouts) and limb targeting feels easier to pull off as well. The HUD makes it a lot clearer to identify which moves drain one's stamina, how to restore it to particular levels and how to ensure that your signature moves are executed at the right time in terms of building momentum. The only flaw is that the submission mini-game is very difficult to master, so this should be tweaked for 2K17, and the game could also benefit from having more move options from a standing front position. Overall, however, the gameplay is much easier to adapt to and provides arguably the best wrestling experience on a game since the legendary SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain and SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 games of a decade ago.

Another key area where 2K15 was watered down concerned the creation suite, a longtime series trademark, which on PS4 and Xbox One consoles provided a diminished Create A Wrestler option with just 25 create slots, and no options to create female characters, and removed several popular create options. Happily, the creation suite is a lot stronger in 2K16, with the CAW aspect properly restored (100 slots, the chance to create females), along with the return of Create An Arena and Create A Championship, and a new Create A Show option too. There are still omissions which will hopefully be back for 2K17 (Create A Finisher and Create A Story amongst them), and the Superstar Threads option is still mishandled (meaning that if you give a new attire to an existing wrestler, it is saved as a completely new created character rather than an alternate attire), but it is a lot better and much more satisfying than what we got in 2K15.

Elsewhere on the game: the graphics are still great, but many characters look half-finished, especially interviewer Renee Young who looks totally different to the real-life blonde bombshell that she is. There are more arenas than ever before with the combination of current venues (including an NXT Takeover backdrop), arenas spanning 1993-2003 from the Austin Showcase which cover WWE, WCW and ECW, and several 1990s arenas from the HOF Showcase. The Music Jukebox feature is back, but we still can't import music into the game for entrances. The online experience remains the same with slightly stronger servers, although there are now 24-hour restrictions on how much created content you can download, which sucks a little bit.

The overall presentation is the best yet, as entrances have virtually no loading time between them now. The game has the first three-man commentary booth ever in a WWE title, but third man John Bradshaw Layfield sounds disinterested and so his contributions add little. Regular commentators Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler sound fairly authentic, but they too often discuss forgettable moments as opposed to genuinely legendary matches from WWE's rich history. There are literally hundreds of unlockable items, including dozens of hidden wrestlers and costumes, which should keep you busy. And we finally have the option to begin matches early by interrupting entrances with sneak attacks, which will hopefully lend itself to post-match fight continuations in 2K17.

After the poor offering that was 2K15, WWE 2K16 fortunately does a lot to correct the previous game's faults, whilst introducing new touches and gameplay options which make it a far superior title. It isn't quite as good as 2K14, which had more big names on its roster and stronger match options and creative features, but it is a sign that things are heading in a positive direction once more. We have a ginormous roster, some entertaining Showcase moments, a strong wrestling engine, more match types than the last game provided, and a more acceptable creation suite. Yes, there is still plenty of room for improvement, which 2K17 will hopefully address, but compared to the incomplete experience that we got one year ago, WWE 2K16 is a much better entry in the series and, for wrestling fans, is a game that you should own. It isn't the best wrestling game by any means, but it is a top ten contender, and it provides enough entertainment and content that it should finally remove the sour taste left in your mouth by 2K15.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10 - Excellent