Post by Tenshu on Jun 6, 2012 21:53:32 GMT -4
Don't really know if this should be in the retro section, but meh not like I can find PS2 games at videogame stores anyway.
Recently I bought three nice items: A very well kept copy of Streets of Rage 2 which I had to get because I'm a "big fan of" the Streets of Rage series and I had to have an actual copy of part 2, and how well it was kept "just blew me away".
Anyway, the second item I got was a PSX controller adapter... makes playing games on the computer where a keyboard would be frustrating to use that much easier now, especially without the squeaking of my XB360 controller's stick.
The third item I got was WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011. Originally I planned to only get this and WWE All Stars for PS2, but looking at videos and reviews, I saw that the PS2 version of All Stars was a crock of shit so I didn't get it.
I kinda have mixed feelings about SVR 2011. About a year or so ago I got SVR 2010 and that was a pretty good wrestling game, you could do a lot of moves and stuff but my gripe with it was the unlockables. I can understand that the PS3 and XB360 versions of that game received Stone Cold Steve Austin as a pre-order and later DLC and so the PS2 version doesn't have him, but everything else you're rewarded with is kinda bland. Of the unlockable wrestlers (I think 5) there are two that are enticing. The Rock, Vince McMahon, Dusty Rhodes, Trish Stratus, and The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase are unlockable and obviously most fans would want to unlock The Rock asap. I'd actually have overpreferred unlocking Million Dollar Man but the problem there is that Million Dollar Man and Dusty Rhodes are pretty much managers because you unlock them as how they are now rather than back then lol. That leaves The Rock, McMahon, and Trish Stratus as the only real "wrestlers" you can unlock (McMahon being a stretch). SVR 2010 does have a very nice wrestling system, you have your strikes, and two different types of grapples. Tilting the right stick in a direction will make you do a quick grapple, which comes off fairly quick but not as damaging, if you hold down R1 and tilt the stick, you can enter into strong grapples from the front, an armlock, a headlock, or waistlock. They're slower to execute and can be countered easy but are more damaging than the quick grapples. So you can pull off some neat combinations of moves this way.
SVR 2011 kinda goes in the opposite direction. There's quite a few wrestlers you'd really want to unlock doing the game's Road to Wrestlemania story modes. You have Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Terry Funk, Mr. McMahon, Rob Van Dam, and the original Kane. There are other wrestlers to unlock doing the game's version of a Career Mode, but these are mostly wrestlers that were a part of the regular roster in SVR 2010 with only two that are new: Yoshi Tatsu and Zack Ryder.
However I guess at the cost of the expanded and interesting roster, out went the quick grapple/strong grapple system of SVR 2010, you now only have strong grapples that come out a bit faster than SVR 2010 strong grapples, but still slower than the quick grapples. Strikes however got a bit expanded, it reminds me of the old Smackdown games for the PSX, you now can do a Streets of Rage style Fury combo by tapping the Strike button.
For example in SVR 2010 Shawn Michaels only did a quick jab no matter how many times you hit the Strike button, and the only way to do different strikes was to tilt the left stick in a direction and then hit the strike button but never in a sequence. In SVR 2011 however, you can still alternate the types of strikes Shawn Michaels can do, but if you keep tapping the strike button alone he'll do a quick jab, two chest chops, and a dropkick to finish.
While the movesets are a bit more limited with SVR 2011, you can still pull of some cool stuff. Like SVR 2010, the game allows you the player to balance the game as you wish. From how powerful finishers and weapons are, to how easy or hard it is for you and the AI to counter moves, to how much momentum you can gain from moves done. (by default it's retardedly easy to get enough momentum for your finisher so I'm tweaking that as soon as I finish unlocking everybody)
I haven't unlocked all the Road to Wrestlemania characters yet, but I can say that they are not unlocked as they would appear today like Million Dollar Man and Dusty Rhodes in SVR 2010. They're unlocked as their younger selves and have their old entrances as well.
Masked Kane is kind of a disappointment however as it's not the version of Masked Kane wrestling fans are used to. The Masked Kane in SVR 2011 uses the attire he had during a First Blood match and is very much like the version of the outfit Undertaker and Luke Gallows wore as Fake Kane:
Two funny things about SVR 2011 and I'm not sure if one of them is in the PS3/XB360 versions, but apparently the second one is.
The first thing is the crowd in SVR 2011 is rather dead compared to 2010 lol. In SVR 2010 the crowd cheered with every move you did and really came alive. In SVR 2011 they rarely cheer at all. The second thing is the announcers say the wrong moves sometimes. You could do a DDT and the announcers say you hit them with a ladder or something. ("Bam! Tombstone Piledriver right there.")
My guess is this next one was to conserve space or whatever but in SVR 2010 the three brands: Raw, Smackdown, and ECW each had their unique pair of announcers, and with that came more voice samples of each wrestler. However in SVR 2011, there are still three brands, but you now have only one pair of announcers: Michael Cole and Jerry "The King" Lawler.
Like SVR 2010, SVR 2011 for PS2 lost out on a bonus character. In SVR 2010 it was Stone Cold Steve Austin, in SVR 2011 it's Bret "The Hitman" Hart. Hart was also a pre-order and later DLC for the next-gen versions. However I haven't evidence yet that he was supposed to be available in the PS2 like Austin in SVR 2010, which I'll explain now.
Stone Cold Truth
In SVR 2010 for the PS2, Austin isn't available as an unlockable. Evidence would be that locked wrestlers (even The Rock as some idiots tried arguing it's a trick to fool the player because Austin's so famous) are given a silhouette until they are unlocked, however there is none for Austin. Once you unlock everything though, Austin's default moveset, entrance, and entrance video are selectable for a created wrestler. This actually spawned a slew of questions regarding Austin if he can or cannot be unlocked in SVR 2010 for PS2 (and you can find people giving bogus passwords to get him on the PS2 version XD), I actually inquired if Austin's model or texture data were on the disc but before I was answered, I saw a video that kinda confirmed my suspicions.
Apparently not only are Austin's moves and entrance on the disc, but his player select portrait and name is also on there. Through the use of a cheat device someone was able to select Austin on PS2 SVR 2010, however the game crashes when loading a match with him selected, maybe Raos could give his view of why but my suspicion is that his individual data is not on the disc. Like his character model and/or texture and thus crashes the game. Maybe he was unfinished or they figured it would be "unfair" if the PS2 had Austin freely available to unlock while the other systems had to download him.
I'm not sure if Bret Hart's entrance, moveset, and video are on the SVR 2011 disc since I haven't fiddled around with the Create a Wrestler mode much yet.
Rob Van Dam?
I'm probably the only one who wondered why this is, but for those who do not know, RVD already left WWE to go to another wrestling promotion (TNA) a while before this game was released, around 2010 so I wondered why he would be in SVR 2011 and I found out he had previously signed a contract with THQ allowing them to use his likeness for the game before signing his TNA contract in 2010 (when SVR 2011 was in development).
Little Tidbits
The Hurricane is an NPC in Road to Wrestlemania and can be fought against in Rey Mysterio's story, but he cannot be selected/used. I read this is because he was released from the WWE and thus they didn't bother to include him in as a usable character.
During John Cena's story, you can view the match cards for ECW. One of the matches reads "Christian vs. Dreamer" as in Tommy Dreamer, who was playable in SVR 2010 but is nowhere to be seen in SVR 2011. Unlike RVD, Dreamer was released from his contract and I assume THQ was informed of this early so they did not include him in the roster but that match card was left in by mistake.
Like most other wrestling games, and sports games in general, the rosters and looks can be a bit off because of real life changes made during the course of game development. An example being a tag team that had broken up irl on WWE television, retains their entrance in SVR 2011 but both wrestlers have their own individual entrance themes and videos, one is even cheered, and the other booed lol.
In Christian's Road to Wrestlemania, the old tag team of Edge & Christian reunites during the story. This also unlocks their entrance with a mashup of their entrance videos, however it still uses Edge's Alter Bridge theme rather than the old theme.
What do I think? I like SVR 2011, and if you like wrestling, have a PS2 and can't be arsed about a new console, pick up SVR 2011 if you want to play with a mix of old and new wrestlers. If you want somewhat of a more technical and strategic wrestling game.. or if you're a Rock fan, get SVR 2010.
Recently I bought three nice items: A very well kept copy of Streets of Rage 2 which I had to get because I'm a "big fan of" the Streets of Rage series and I had to have an actual copy of part 2, and how well it was kept "just blew me away".
Anyway, the second item I got was a PSX controller adapter... makes playing games on the computer where a keyboard would be frustrating to use that much easier now, especially without the squeaking of my XB360 controller's stick.
The third item I got was WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011. Originally I planned to only get this and WWE All Stars for PS2, but looking at videos and reviews, I saw that the PS2 version of All Stars was a crock of shit so I didn't get it.
I kinda have mixed feelings about SVR 2011. About a year or so ago I got SVR 2010 and that was a pretty good wrestling game, you could do a lot of moves and stuff but my gripe with it was the unlockables. I can understand that the PS3 and XB360 versions of that game received Stone Cold Steve Austin as a pre-order and later DLC and so the PS2 version doesn't have him, but everything else you're rewarded with is kinda bland. Of the unlockable wrestlers (I think 5) there are two that are enticing. The Rock, Vince McMahon, Dusty Rhodes, Trish Stratus, and The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase are unlockable and obviously most fans would want to unlock The Rock asap. I'd actually have overpreferred unlocking Million Dollar Man but the problem there is that Million Dollar Man and Dusty Rhodes are pretty much managers because you unlock them as how they are now rather than back then lol. That leaves The Rock, McMahon, and Trish Stratus as the only real "wrestlers" you can unlock (McMahon being a stretch). SVR 2010 does have a very nice wrestling system, you have your strikes, and two different types of grapples. Tilting the right stick in a direction will make you do a quick grapple, which comes off fairly quick but not as damaging, if you hold down R1 and tilt the stick, you can enter into strong grapples from the front, an armlock, a headlock, or waistlock. They're slower to execute and can be countered easy but are more damaging than the quick grapples. So you can pull off some neat combinations of moves this way.
SVR 2011 kinda goes in the opposite direction. There's quite a few wrestlers you'd really want to unlock doing the game's Road to Wrestlemania story modes. You have Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Terry Funk, Mr. McMahon, Rob Van Dam, and the original Kane. There are other wrestlers to unlock doing the game's version of a Career Mode, but these are mostly wrestlers that were a part of the regular roster in SVR 2010 with only two that are new: Yoshi Tatsu and Zack Ryder.
However I guess at the cost of the expanded and interesting roster, out went the quick grapple/strong grapple system of SVR 2010, you now only have strong grapples that come out a bit faster than SVR 2010 strong grapples, but still slower than the quick grapples. Strikes however got a bit expanded, it reminds me of the old Smackdown games for the PSX, you now can do a Streets of Rage style Fury combo by tapping the Strike button.
For example in SVR 2010 Shawn Michaels only did a quick jab no matter how many times you hit the Strike button, and the only way to do different strikes was to tilt the left stick in a direction and then hit the strike button but never in a sequence. In SVR 2011 however, you can still alternate the types of strikes Shawn Michaels can do, but if you keep tapping the strike button alone he'll do a quick jab, two chest chops, and a dropkick to finish.
While the movesets are a bit more limited with SVR 2011, you can still pull of some cool stuff. Like SVR 2010, the game allows you the player to balance the game as you wish. From how powerful finishers and weapons are, to how easy or hard it is for you and the AI to counter moves, to how much momentum you can gain from moves done. (by default it's retardedly easy to get enough momentum for your finisher so I'm tweaking that as soon as I finish unlocking everybody)
I haven't unlocked all the Road to Wrestlemania characters yet, but I can say that they are not unlocked as they would appear today like Million Dollar Man and Dusty Rhodes in SVR 2010. They're unlocked as their younger selves and have their old entrances as well.
Masked Kane is kind of a disappointment however as it's not the version of Masked Kane wrestling fans are used to. The Masked Kane in SVR 2011 uses the attire he had during a First Blood match and is very much like the version of the outfit Undertaker and Luke Gallows wore as Fake Kane:
Two funny things about SVR 2011 and I'm not sure if one of them is in the PS3/XB360 versions, but apparently the second one is.
The first thing is the crowd in SVR 2011 is rather dead compared to 2010 lol. In SVR 2010 the crowd cheered with every move you did and really came alive. In SVR 2011 they rarely cheer at all. The second thing is the announcers say the wrong moves sometimes. You could do a DDT and the announcers say you hit them with a ladder or something. ("Bam! Tombstone Piledriver right there.")
My guess is this next one was to conserve space or whatever but in SVR 2010 the three brands: Raw, Smackdown, and ECW each had their unique pair of announcers, and with that came more voice samples of each wrestler. However in SVR 2011, there are still three brands, but you now have only one pair of announcers: Michael Cole and Jerry "The King" Lawler.
Like SVR 2010, SVR 2011 for PS2 lost out on a bonus character. In SVR 2010 it was Stone Cold Steve Austin, in SVR 2011 it's Bret "The Hitman" Hart. Hart was also a pre-order and later DLC for the next-gen versions. However I haven't evidence yet that he was supposed to be available in the PS2 like Austin in SVR 2010, which I'll explain now.
Stone Cold Truth
In SVR 2010 for the PS2, Austin isn't available as an unlockable. Evidence would be that locked wrestlers (even The Rock as some idiots tried arguing it's a trick to fool the player because Austin's so famous) are given a silhouette until they are unlocked, however there is none for Austin. Once you unlock everything though, Austin's default moveset, entrance, and entrance video are selectable for a created wrestler. This actually spawned a slew of questions regarding Austin if he can or cannot be unlocked in SVR 2010 for PS2 (and you can find people giving bogus passwords to get him on the PS2 version XD), I actually inquired if Austin's model or texture data were on the disc but before I was answered, I saw a video that kinda confirmed my suspicions.
Apparently not only are Austin's moves and entrance on the disc, but his player select portrait and name is also on there. Through the use of a cheat device someone was able to select Austin on PS2 SVR 2010, however the game crashes when loading a match with him selected, maybe Raos could give his view of why but my suspicion is that his individual data is not on the disc. Like his character model and/or texture and thus crashes the game. Maybe he was unfinished or they figured it would be "unfair" if the PS2 had Austin freely available to unlock while the other systems had to download him.
I'm not sure if Bret Hart's entrance, moveset, and video are on the SVR 2011 disc since I haven't fiddled around with the Create a Wrestler mode much yet.
Rob Van Dam?
I'm probably the only one who wondered why this is, but for those who do not know, RVD already left WWE to go to another wrestling promotion (TNA) a while before this game was released, around 2010 so I wondered why he would be in SVR 2011 and I found out he had previously signed a contract with THQ allowing them to use his likeness for the game before signing his TNA contract in 2010 (when SVR 2011 was in development).
Little Tidbits
The Hurricane is an NPC in Road to Wrestlemania and can be fought against in Rey Mysterio's story, but he cannot be selected/used. I read this is because he was released from the WWE and thus they didn't bother to include him in as a usable character.
During John Cena's story, you can view the match cards for ECW. One of the matches reads "Christian vs. Dreamer" as in Tommy Dreamer, who was playable in SVR 2010 but is nowhere to be seen in SVR 2011. Unlike RVD, Dreamer was released from his contract and I assume THQ was informed of this early so they did not include him in the roster but that match card was left in by mistake.
Like most other wrestling games, and sports games in general, the rosters and looks can be a bit off because of real life changes made during the course of game development. An example being a tag team that had broken up irl on WWE television, retains their entrance in SVR 2011 but both wrestlers have their own individual entrance themes and videos, one is even cheered, and the other booed lol.
In Christian's Road to Wrestlemania, the old tag team of Edge & Christian reunites during the story. This also unlocks their entrance with a mashup of their entrance videos, however it still uses Edge's Alter Bridge theme rather than the old theme.
What do I think? I like SVR 2011, and if you like wrestling, have a PS2 and can't be arsed about a new console, pick up SVR 2011 if you want to play with a mix of old and new wrestlers. If you want somewhat of a more technical and strategic wrestling game.. or if you're a Rock fan, get SVR 2010.
