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quoteHigher powers. Stone Cold driving a truck to the ring and drenching Mr McMahon with beer. D-Generation X attacking WCW. 24/7 hardcore matches.
TLC matches. Inferno matches. Mankind being thrown off the top of the Hell In A Cell, only to be chokeslammed through the roof minutes later. Shane O'Mac elbowing Big Show from the top of the Titantron. Cars filled with cement. Cars dropped from forklifts. Invasions. Screwjobs. Mr McMahon wetting himself in the ring at gunpoint. Mr Socko visiting the hospital. Cactus Jack going through the cell roof. Blood...
The words 'Attitude Era' burn brightly in the minds of any wrestling fan who knows their stuff. It encompasses the latter half of the '90s and the early portion of this millennium, back when WWE was known as the World Wrestling Federation and the notion of PG-rated content was given a two-fingered salute by the company.
It was edgy. It was exciting. It was daring. It was marvellous. And it's precisely what you can expect from WWE '13.
quotePeople power
How apt that in the current age of John Laurinaitis' 'People Power' movement the people have spoken and THQ have listened. After last year's disappointing career mode execution, 'Road to Wrestlemania' has been wished well on its future endeavours and in its place is a career mode set entirely within the Attitude Era.
The campaign is all about reliving the past in the boots of eight classic Attitude Era wrestlers, and in a trick borrowed from WWE All-Stars and Legends of WrestleMania, THQ have got WWE to create over 20 bespoke videos (totalling 35-40 minutes of content) to build up the feuds and storylines using archive footage from the shows.
Unlike WWE All-Stars, however, the Attitude Era campaign won't just be a selection of separate matches with no linking themes. Instead we're talking one very long timeline with one wrestler's adventures dovetailing into another's, and although the campaign will be split up into chapters you'll experience the whole thing in chronological order.
What of WCW and ECW? Despite now living under the WWE umbrella these brands won't feature in any big way (WCW will appear from time to time in the show footage vignettes to explain how the Monday Night Wars are going, and HUD elements will pop up pre-match to describe how WWE is faring against its then-rival company), which is a shame.
Making up for their absence is the news of bonus matches that'll unlock as you play through the campaign, so if you're in the middle of a major storyline and you have a match on a PPV that was remembered more for a classic bout featuring a different character, you'll be able to relive that fight also.
And those blasted 'Press to finish the fight' prompts that were spread all through WWE '12's campaign mode? We're pleased to report they've been booted out of the arena and banned from making a return.
quote I do like Mondays
Of course, what made the Attitude Era truly shine were some of those once-in-a-lifetime moments we mentioned back at the start, which is why THQ have come up with the notion of 'Spectacular Moments'. They're the types of moves that tend to have the crowd yelling, "holy s***!" in awe, and they're finally getting the treatment they deserve.
In the past games, throwing somebody off the Hell In A Cell and through the announce table was both fiddly and massively underwhelming. The move was frequently ignored by crowd and commentators alike, and after a quick breather the victim was up and ready to fight again as if they'd just suffered a clothesline. Now table smashes, ring breaks, superplexes to the outside of the ring and the like will be celebrated for the rare, shocking moments they are with new presentation effects. Pull one off and not only will you notice radically improved animations and framing, you'll get a three-part replay system à la WWF No Mercy to let you bask in the glory (or shame, if you're on the receiving end) of the move. A new addition to Spectacular Moments is the inclusion of catching finishers. Superstars can catch opponents leaping off of turnbuckles and springboarding off the ropes and counter straight into a finisher. Think Randy Orton's amazing RKO on Evan Bourne's Air Bourne (though neither superstar is yet officially confirmed as part of the roster, the former is a certain inclusion) and you're on the right track: the examples we were given included CM Punk catching a superstar on his shoulders and delivering the GTS, Undertaker catching and spinning into the Tombstone Piledriver and Big Show unleashing a Chokeslam (rather than the WMD, surprisingly).
Of course, crazy bumps and supreme wrestling skills aren't the only ingredients of a Spectacular Moment or memorable WWE scene. What would Mr McMahon's Higher Power reveal be without JR yelling, "Son of a Bitch?" on commentary, or Mankind's crazy Hell In A Cell bumps be if you removed the crowd going nuts and JR screaming, "As God as my witness he is broken in half!" Not half as good, that's what. Commentary's been a weak point of the WWE games for years now, so one of the most interesting additions to WWE '13 is the 'WWE Live' feature: a complete audio overhaul.
quote Crowd control
THQ have brought the UFC audio team over to work on the WWE game and they've completely rewritten every aspect of the audio. But here's the really good part: they've taken actual recordings from past tapings and present crowds (Daniel Bryan's favourite word included) to deliver something that truly reflects the show. Those famous JR lines from the Attitude Era? Well, JR and King commentate on the campaign, so plenty of original quotes will be cropping up as and when you'd expect them to, as will all your favourite WWE Universe chants.
But as the screens clearly show, WWE '13 isn't all about the Attitude Era. Before we get carried away with all the '90s talk it's worth noting that it's CM Punk, not Stone Cold or The Rock, who's bestowed with the honour of being the cover star this year, and the Best In The World will be leading a revolutionary charge in the game's returning Universe mode.
"I don't want consumers to think now all of a sudden we're focusing on past WWE and current WWE isn't getting much love!" insists Creative Director Cory Ledesma when we ask him about the contradictions of CM Punk's cover and the campaign's Attitudinal focus. "We care a lot about being authentic to the experience," continues Ledesma when we mention our love of John Laurinaitis' General Manager run, "and if there's something really big going on with WWE you can predict or guess that we're going to be very diligent in supporting - closely - what's going on in the programming in WWE '13."
After that glut of fan-pleasing pipebombs there's only one way we could possibly finish. All together now: YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!
SourceA nice little read
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The Hazard
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