Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Another week...Another Jack Swagger edit!

My Universe is officially on the Road to Wrestlemania, from this week forward I will be making my own matches on Clash of the Champions. As for Raw and Nitro, I'm going to try and let the game continue to book things how it sees fit. Lets go over the highlights as they happen...

RAW:

- DX vs. Slater and Gabriel
Thoughts: Slater is on no brands and I broke this tag team up weeks ago in Universe. Lets hope something cool comes from this. Ok cool Slater came out by himself, its now a handicap match against DX. DX wins in a massive squash! Post match, Gabriel and Christian run out and beat down DX for no reason at all. I really don't get why the game has randomly paired those two up, and to attack DX like that is just mind boggling.

- Maryse vs. Kelly Kelly
Thoughts: Kelly defeats Maryse in a non title match after interference from Kelly's friend Bobbi (A created Diva). About time a created Diva shows up in some resemblance of a storyline.

- CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar
Thoughts: This makes PERFECT sense. Punk pinned Lesnar in the Elimination Chamber the night before costing him the WWE Championship. Lesnar wants revenge. But that's not happening. Punk picks up a huge win on the road to Wrestlemania.

- Main event: Stone Cold vs. Vader
Thoughts: This was really just a gimmick match so the Royal Rumble winner could choose his opponent for Wrestlemania. AJ came out on commentary before the match, got involved very early on and attacked Vader securing his match with him for Wrestlemania.

Raw Notes: It seems that the game has turned Justin Gabriel heel. I'm honestly surprised he wasn't a heel already over how much he's been feuding with AJ Styles the past month. Speaking of AJ, I added some ROH alum to his allies list, hoping it sparks some cool storylines for him on the Road to Wrestlemania.

CLASH OF THE CHAMPIONS:

- Rob Van Dam vs. Chavo Guerrero
Thoughts: As this is RVDs first match in Universe I didn't want to edit this one, I figure I will let this play out and see if he gets a storyline out of it. Van Dam wins clean, no cut scene...Lame.

- Daniel Bryan vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat
Thoughts: My boy D-Bryan hasn't gotten any action in my Universe yet. Time to start his push against one of Nitros legends in Steamboat. And Daniel Bryan wins with the Labell Lock! After the match Cody Rhodes comes out and beats down Bryan with a lead pipe. A shame these two are on separate brands, I will make sure they are in the main event of Clash of the Champions next week!

- MAIN EVENT: Zack Ryder vs. Wade Barret (A True Clash of Champions)
Thoughts: Originally this match AGAIN had freakin overall rated 1 Jack Swagger in it. really getting tired of seeing him, as you can see...the match has obviously changed. Ryder scores the win with the Rough Ryder.

Show Notes: I've noticed that AJ Styles is finally not booked on the Thursday show, does that mean we will finally see him on Nitro? Guess we shall see...

NITRO:

- John Morrison vs. Booker T
Thoughts: Both of these guys are two of the more popular faces on Nitro, I'm really not understanding why they are about to wrestle one another. We shall see what this is all about...Oh man! Randy Orton jumps Booker T from behind (he returned the week before and attacked Booker, then punted him on PPV at the Elimination Chamber). Morrison picks up an easy win thanks to an assist from the Viper. Post match Orton passes Morrison on the ramp and goes in to beat down on Booker. Morrison rushes back to the ring to make the save. I smell a tag match coming!

- Layla vs. Michelle McCool
Thoughts: So tired of seeing these two fight, seriously...Its been almost every freakin week. I took control of McCool and hit Layla with a chair to cause the DQ and move on. I can't stand McCool.

- John Cena vs. Mark Henry
Thoughts: Time for the burial of John Cena to begin. Universe wasn't using him on Raw so its time to move him to Nitro. I swapped him and Randy Orton at the Elimination Chamber. Of course beating John Cena is never easy, the game sends Kane out (music and all) to interfere in the match. Luckily for me I had a ring escape to use once Cena hit his Attitude Adjustment. Henry wins with a Worlds Strongest Slam.

- MAIN EVENT: Eddie Guerrero vs. Sheamus
Thoughts: Eddie just lost his World Championship at the Elimination Chamber. At least he's still in the main event scene going up against a heel Sheamus. Eddie picks up the win with the Frog Splash. Post match Morrison comes out and raises Eddie's hand. JoMo and Cena teased forming a stable with Eddie at the end of Nitro last week.

Besides having to change the booking for the Clash, and that fact that AJ Styles and Vader were both absent from Nitro this week...I really have no complaints per say about Universe this week. Wish they would mix up the Divas matches a bit, but hopefully more CAWs and DLC will fix that problem in the weeks to come. Thanks for reading, until next time...

These have been the words of the Show.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Pros and Cons of Universe 2.0 and what's going on in mine...

Hey everyone, welcome back. Today I'm going to give you a brief run-down of my Universe thus far. Afterwards I will include random thoughts that I have been able to remember so far about what I like this year and what I don't. Having this blog handy for now on I will be able to take notes of everything going forward. That way I won't forget anything that I do or do not like. So here we go!

So my first two pay per views of this years Universe mode are in the books with the Royal Rumble and the Elimination Chamber. First thing I want to do is let you all know about my Universe and what's going on inside of it...

I have two brands, I have WWE Raw and WCW Nitro. The Thursday show is Clash of the Champions with the idea of that being the only night guys from Raw will face guys from Nitro. But thanks to the games logic booking that hasn't worked out so well. I intend on starting to change that this week going forward on my own.

The Champions of each brand are as follows:

RAW:

WWE Champion:
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin
Note: Brock Lesnar lost the title in the Elimination Chamber, Austin defeated CM Punk in the end to win the title. (Note: I was CM Punk. lol)

Intercontinental Champion:
Zack Ryder
Note: Zack has held this championship since the first Raw of my Universe. He has yet to lose it, and the Long Island Iced Z is steadily climbing up the ranks of the WWE.

World Tag Team Champions:
Demolition
Note: Besides seeing some singles action on Clash of the Champions, Demolition has yet to appear as a tag team in my Universe...Very odd.

Divas Champion:
Maryse
Note: Maryse defeated Kelly Kelly to win the Championship on the road to the Elimination Chamber.

NITRO:

World Heavyweight Champion:
Vader
Note: Eddie Guerrero lost the title in the Elimination Chamber, Vader beat Mark Henry in the end to win the title.

United States Champion:
Wade Barrett
Note: Wade won the title at the Royal Rumble from Booker T and has held it ever since.

Tag Team Champions:
The Road Warriors
Note: Much like Demolition, I have yet to see this tag team compete in my Universe.

Women's Champion:
Layla
Note: Just recently moved Eve to Nitro so there are 4 women on the show to give the title some variety. I have a couple created original divas on Raw already.

Royal Rumble Winner: AJ Styles, who will choose to face Vader at Wrestlemania for the World Heavyweight Championship

In my time with Universe so far there are some things I love, and some things I hate. So I'm gonna start naming them here in bullet points...

- I love the fact that titles can now be defended at anytime. While I have only done this a few times so far, the fact that I don't have to worry about rankings or waiting for a PPV to make changes in this is probably the most welcome addition to Universe this year.

- Besides the teams I have broken up on my own, I have seen zero teams break up this year. Which is a beautiful thing because last year if I had Beer Money or the Motor City Machine Guns break up one more time I was gonna lose it.

- While I enjoy the fact that you can edit shows, there is little that can be done with the Thursday show. You can't assign it championships and you can't change the brands which compete on said show. To make my brands work properly, I changed Smackdown's logo to WCW and WCW's logo to Smackdown. So my brands would actually both be on the Thursday show.

- I like the variety of cut scenes this year, they certainly seem to be more random and spread out. I don't recall seeing many repeats thus far which is always good thing. The more cut scenes the better. Keeps you playing instead of simming cause you never know what's going to happen next.

- Injuries seem to be happening way too much and never when I want them to. When I purposely try to injure someone they escape unharmed but when I just have a good match with a couple of finishers involved the guy goes out on a stretcher. That needs to be fixed, or at least have a more defined reason for injuries to be taking place.

- Speaking of injuries, while the game doesn't allow you to book injured superstars yourself, it seems to have ZERO problem booking them if they are involved in a storyline. The first week of my Universe Randy Orton who was the World Heavyweight Champion got injured on Nitro. But that didn't stop him from showing up on Raw for the next month getting involved with Alberto Del Rio and Brock Lesnar for no good explanation at all.

- I also don't like the aspects of people constantly showing up on other shows. When its the draft RAW I understand, Thursdays show which is supposed to be done by design I'm cool with. But when someone that is on Nitro is showing up on RAW more than his own show...that gets to be quite annoying.

- One of the things I liked about Universe last year was the ability to put someone in as a Free Agent and they wouldn't appear in your Universe anymore. This year sadly that isn't the case as Jack Swagger won't leave people alone on my shows. Its almost as if the game is trying to force him into story lines and I want no part of him in my brands at all. Trying to injure him does no good. Moving him to NXT does no good. Making him a 1 overall did nothing either. I even took away all his rivals and allies in hopes it would just stop using him, but for some reason the game obsesses over the All American American. Sometimes I wish the game would take the hint that you don't want certain people in matches. That's what free agency should be all about.

- One thing I don't understand is that when you edit a match that you don't like, that some of the other matches on the show change. I could understand if I was using someone that was in another match but I'm not. So I don't understand the CPU logic behind changing the other matches. Just my opinion.

- Lack of Created Superstar/Diva involvement in Universe is saddening for me thus far. Even after winning the Royal Rumble, AJ Styles has yet to appear on Nitro and has fought Justin Gabriel on Clash of the Champions 4 weeks in a row. He's won every single match. Its time to move him to the main show. My two created divas have only been involved in Universe when I have actually put them into a match. The game has refused to acknowledge that either of them are there. Lets hope as the year rolls on in Universe these things will change.

So far those are my pros and cons to Universe two PPVs in. I know a lot of people in the community are upset that you must have 15 Superstars on a brand in Universe, that doesn't include created superstars. Marcus Stephenson of THQ has gone on record that this is a bug in Universe, so maybe this can be corrected with a future patch.

Me personally, it isn't a problem. But if I was able to create additional shows in my Universe on different nights I would have a big issue with that. I honestly wish I could create just one show for the divas and take them off my other brands, but they won't let us do that. Maybe next year?

That's all I have for today, all future blog entries going forward will talk about my experiences going forward in Universe. What's happening in it, cool things I find, new things I don't like. It will all be covered here!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. Maybe you agree, maybe you don't. But that's the beauty of something like this. Be sure to leave a comment about what you love or hate about Universe below. Together as one voice we can make a better Universe mode for the future, but it all starts with us!

These have been the words of the Show.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

So it begins...

Hey everyone,

My name is Matt Black, known to WWE Games Community as RAWFShowtime. I have decided to start my own blog which will keep you all up to date on the happenings in my WWE Universe in the video game, WWE '12.

Now the question has to be asked, why am I doing this?

It's simple actually, unlike some publications...In my eyes, and in the eyes of almost all WWE Gamers world wide, universe mode is by far the most important single player experience the WWE Games franchise has to offer.

While Universe 2.0 is most certainly improved over last year, its not perfect.

This blog will talk about the strengths and weaknesses of Universe 2.0, offering praise and constructive criticism where warranted.

With this blog it is my intention to help THQ make a better Universe going forward with WWE '13 and beyond.

My first entry up tomorrow will talk about my initial impressions of Universe mode in WWE '12. What I like, what I don't, and some random thoughts along the way. I will be giving thoughts up until the PPV Elimination Chamber.

After that entry my blog posts will will be comprised with random thoughts and ideas as I play through the mode.

Every time I boot Universe up, I'm bringing this blog up with it. Almost as if I'm doing it in real time so I can remember what I want to say when I see certain things occurring.

So thanks for reading, and be sure to leave feedback on Universe here as well. Together, as one voice...we can all make a better game!