WWE 2K15 #FeelIt – Controls & Creation Suite

Posted on November 14, 2014 by sparxteam in Film/TV, Home, Sports, Video Games // 0 Comments

Controls

WWE 2K15’s executive producer, Mark Little, introduces us to some of the new grappling controls in this year’s very fancy looking iteration of its popular wrestling game franchise. There’s a lot of things to remember this time round and although some of the stick and buttons do the same job as last year, there’s a few things you’ll have to get used to.

The HUD has been given a once over, first of all, now displaying health, stamina and a new momentum meter that shows your match popularity in percentages. Going on the attack and successfully pulling off reversals will boost the meter and gives you access to your signature and finisher moves at certain levels. All three meters determine what you can and can’t do in a match, making you play a balanced game, rather than just mashing buttons until you win.

Chain wrestling is also new and gives the player a chance to get the upper hand in a match by wearing down your opponent. Only certain wrestlers can use this new feature, leaving slower paced or bigger lycra-stretchers to use power moves and higher damage attacks rather than the quick, tire-out style. It’s a stick based, sweet-spot mini-game and looks like a good new addition to change the pacing of matches.

The usual, attack, run, grab and taunt actions are all in there too and should be more familiar to fans of the WWE 2K series. There’s just a few extra things to juggle, although it looks to add to the general feel of a real wrestling match rather than a full on fighting game.

More interesting to most, is how damn good each wrestler is looking on new consoles. I was expecting something amazing from 2K this generation and the new facial scanning technology used has really paid off. Just take a look at Mark Henry’s mean-looking mug in the video to see what I mean or the expressions on Chris Jericho’s face as he gurns like a toothless old man at being pushed around.

Creation Suite

In a recent update for the official WWE 2K franchise website, 2K Games and the design team for WWE 2K15 revealed all the significant details for the WWE 2K15 Creation Suite. Previously, a recent video featuring art director Lynell Jenkins provided a strong look at the Superstar Studio in the game, a way to add custom image scans to the game’s Create-a-Wrestler program. Although the prior video provided an interesting glimpse of the comprehensive layers of customization for the Creation Suite, the new update by 2K Games indicates that there are some significant omissions from the Creation Suite for the new game; and some are quite disappointing.

On some level, I can understand the reason for such major omissions to the Creation Suite. Visual Concepts was probably on a strict schedule to deliver the game. However, this is still the first next-gen WWE 2K game, so expectations are high. Unfortunately, the major changes players want from the game will not happen for this installment of the franchise.

2K Games confirmed that WWE 2K15 will not feature Create-an-Arena, Custom Divas, Create-a-Championship and Story Designer.

adly, Create-an-Arena and Create-a-Championship are major losses to the game. Despite the inclusion of the awesome Superstar Studio tool, it will not be possible to us the image scans to make WCW arenas or PPVs for the game. The Superstar Studio tool would have probably helped making perfect re-creations of title belts from the history of professional wrestling. That is no longer possible.

Another huge blow to the game is the lack of Custom Divas. This means CAW Divas for the game are impossible. That is coupled with the fact that only 25 CAW slots are available for the game. A patch or updates could remedy these issues in the future. If not, WWE 2K16 will amend the problem.

According to 2K, these omissions were made to make a more focused and polished game. I really hope that is the case. The character models do look spectacular. The new, refined character animations look great.