WWE 2K14

This years wrestling game from the WWE is entitled WWE 2K14 and it's big selling point is 30 years of Wrestlemania where the gamer gets to relive classic moments from Wrestlemania history. In doing this the games sees a return of iconic wrestlers to form the legends roster mixing in with the current roster.

Now, I have not seen the game play yet but the full roster has been revealed and this is my opinion of it.

You cannot have a 30 years of Wrestlemania fixture and not include Roddy Piper. That is ridiculous. And the reason they chose not to include him is because Mr T turned down the WWE's money offer to appear in the game. As if Mr T is the only wrestlemania opponent Piper ever faced. Bullshit! They've got Bret Hart in it for gods sake! Piper and Hart had one of the greatest matches ever for the Intercontinental Title at Wrestlemania. That's more than enough justification to include him in the game even with Mr T being involved.

Anyway, the legends roster is:

Andre the Giant, Big John Studd, Big Show (retro), Bret Hart, Brock Lesnar (retro), Chris Jericho (retro), Diesel, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Goldberg, Hulk Hogan, Hollywood Hulk Hogan, JBL, John Cena (retro), Kane (retro), King Kong Bundy, Mick Foley, Mr McMahon, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Razor Ramon, Ric Flair, Ric Flair (retro), Ricky Steamboat, SGT. Slaughter, Shawn Michaels, Shawn Micheals (retro), "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, The Rock, The Rock (retro), Triple H (retro), The Ultimate Warrior, the Undertaker (American Badass) the Undertaker (retro) and Yokozuna.

And you're telling me we need two versions of the Big Show, Brock Lesnar, Chris Jericho, Hulk Hogan, Kane, John Cena, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, the Rock and Triple H and three different Undertakers but we cant have Roddy Piper, Mr Perfect, Jake Roberts or Paul Orndorff?

Oh! And you know who they've included from the current roster instead of Piper or or Perfect or Roberts or Orndorff? Zack Rider. Justin Gabriel. Jinder Mahal. Drew McIntyre. Davis Otunga. Heath Slater. Ok. Sure. the case could be made that you need some jobbers but David Otunga?! He's not been on WWE TV for months!

Not sure who most of those people are, but the classic roster makes it sound interesting to me. I kind of dig these games, but I haven't played one since 2008. I actually think I mentioned it last time one of the Smackdown Vs. Raw games came out.

I shall continue my streak of having bought all of the Smackdown series and their spiritual successors but it annoys me that they're making doubles of the characters instead of just making them alternate appearances and giving us extra characters - also, as a side note, if your interested in being the Warrior you'll have to pre-order because, like Mike Tyson in the last game, I doubt you'll be able to get him any other way. One thing I will say in favor of this roster in comparison to last years one is at least we dont have three versions of Triple H anymore, three Undertakers you can just about justify but three Triple H's? Who the hell wants three Triple H's?

I hate pre-order bonuses you can't get later on. They should be exclusive for a year or whatever, then released for a buck or two afterwards.

Ok. A summary of what I've seen so far of the game - since I bought it but haven't played it that much yet.

Good:

30 Years of Wrestlemania - like last year this game features matches from classic WWF/E stories. Where last year you played through the Attitude Era, this year you have different time-periods of Wrestlemania's to play through. I have only finished the Hulkamania era so far but it was fun playing in some of the classic matches from the old Wrestlemania's.

Create-a-wrestler - they have added a feature in the create-a-wrestler section where you can choose between starting from scratch or picking a pre-made superstar's face, body and costumes. To elaborate, they didn't add Roddy Piper to the game properly, but they gave you pre-made face, body and costumes to make him yourself.

"The Macho Man" Randy Savage - by far the best designed character in the game. He looks amazing, and we get to see a recreation of one of his classic promo's.

Bad/dissapointing:

WWE Universe - seems unchanged from last year. Not much variety in gameplay, not much variety in cut scenes, though it is a bit more interactive than before.

Create-a-wrestler - no new items of hairstyles or anything that I could tell, and as for the pre-made superstar bases I would have prefered to have more vareity of classic wrestlers (Yes, Piper is there and there are a few I've yet to unlock but they Triple H, Undertaker, Kane, Randy Order, John Cena, Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, and you dont need more of them! They are in the game already and I have never understood why anyone would think we need more of them - especially the likes of Triple H, Cena and Undertaker who have two or more variations already given to you!)

To me, they seem to release the same games over and over again... then make billions off them. It's not just the wrestling ones, it's Fifa, Madden, NBA Live - all of them. They'll make improvements here or there, change the cosmetics and such, but I don't think they have much interest in pushing the boundaries of what a wrestling game could be. And now they just like to make even more off you with micro transactions. Argh.

I have tried several times in the last month or so to go back to the game a progress things but I keep giving up because of one thing, the Diesel/Undertaker match in 30 Years of Wrestlemania mode. It's totally a rip off. Diesel's got a sped up signature/finisher thing in the match so he gets it quicker than you, but you can beat the hell out of him and stop him from getting any offensive moves in whatsoever and he still gets a signature move within a minute, hits you with it and then hits his finisher and if you dont lose at that moment then he's got control anyway. I dont like this kind of handicap in games anyway but it's bloody ridiculous with this match and makes no sense whatsoever.

Just like when Smackdown vs RAW 2010 ruined the game for me with that bogus thing of Orton interfering in a match between HBK and JBL clearly in the ref's sight but the match continuing, this one match has likely made it so that I'll never play this game again.

I thought I'd go back to this game today just to try it out and see if I could get any further

I was hoping to find a downloadable option to unlock everything - doesn't exist. So I thought I'd look online to see if there was another way and I got several "cheat" websites telling me what I'd have to do in-game to unlock these things. And that really pisses me off. There is nothing quite so annoying as looking for ways to unlock something without having to complete the in-game tasks only to be presented with a list of in-game tasks you have to complete to unlock things.

Anyway I thought I'd try the 30 Years of Wrestlemania thing again and see if I could at least get to the next match. I managed to beat Diesel, which I was pleased with even though I didn't complete all the tasks to unlock whatever beating him unlocks, and got on to the next match...and I gave up.

The next match was Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart in an ironman match. Great fight in real life, one of the best ever between two of the best ever, but that doesn't I want to have an hours worth of game-time replaying the whole bloody thing. The 15 minutes they usually give for an Ironman match in these game gets repetitive enough but a whole hour?! Fuck that! No way in hell I am wasting an hour of my life in one match which I hate playing in these games in the best of circumstances but in this case it would be in a game that's already pissed me off to no end.

I can honestly say that this is one of the most dissapointing game in this franchise I have ever played - and I've had every single one in the Smackdown series from 2000 to the modern day.