Official WWE 2K16 Thread [gamescom gameplay footage]

Kidd Dibiase

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Professional wrestling, in terms of the physical performances required, is a pretty complex thing to emulate compared to something like, say, baseball, or tennis. In order to make a wrestling game that all the millions (and millions) of wrestling fans can play, a lot of that has been traditionally been streamlined or abstracted, but WWE 2K16 marks another step away from that, just as last year’s game did. WWE 2K16 adds extra layers of nuance that might seem small, but they actually invite players to wrestle smarter, and make better strategic decisions.

WWE 2K16 - First Gameplay
00:42

The biggest expression of this is how the reversal system has been fleshed out. Fans get nervous whenever reversals are brought up, because how they’re handled can have a massive effect on match flow, to the point of ruin in some cases. But so far, the changes and additions that Yukes and Visual Concepts have made are helping immensely.

For starters, reversals are now an actual resource you need to manage. More technically sound wrestlers might have a stock of five, while others might have four or three. Every time you successfully reverse a move, you lose one stock, which will begin to regenerate very slowly over time. The result is that matches between two good players won’t turn into an endless chain of reversals, occasionally highlighted by a successful move when someone makes a mistake. It keeps the pace of the match moving a lot more like what you see in an actual match.

WWE 2K16: Kalisto Ring Entrance Video
00:43

The next layer is the addition of “major” reversals. Not every move can be reversed in this way, but the ones that can be have unique reversal indicators. The first will show up during the normal reversal window at the start of a move, but if you wait, there will be a second, smaller window somewhere in the middle. It’s much tougher to hit, and costs two reversal stocks, but the effort is worth it, giving you a momentum boost that can swing the direction of the match.

This played a big role in how I approached the matches I played. Since I wanted to keep two reversals stocked at all times in case a major reversal opportunity popped up, I’d let smaller moves hit me unless I was really taking a beating. Likewise, I found myself holding off on big moves I knew could be major reversed until my opponent only had a single stock left to prevent them from hitting one. Don’t want your finisher reversed? Save it for when your opponent is out of reversals to guarantee that you’ll hit with it. No previous entry in the series has made me think this way.

WWE 2K16 - Finn Bálor's Ring Entrance
02:57

Just like last year, stamina is also a resource you have to manage, and Working Holds are a great tool for doing so. Wrestling smarks know what these are about, it’s a prolonged hold that gives both performers a chance to catch their breath for the latter part of the match. In WWE 2K16, the principle is similar, you can slap on a Working Hold to give yourself time to regain stamina while draining your opponent’s. Not only is this a great tactic to employ if you find yourself falling behind an opponent with better conditioning, but again, it adds another element of the pacing and storytelling that goes on in an actual match.

Submissions are the final piece of the puzzle that’s really come along. Though last year, the submissions system was “all-new” in theory, in practice it was just more button mashing. This year, it’s completely new and totally skill based. It’s hard to describe, but imagine a circular icon shows up and you and your opponent each control a rotatable wedge of it. In order to submit your opponent you have to keep their section covered with yours, so you’ll be jockeying back and forth with the analog stick in a sort of cat-and-mouse fashion.

WWE 2K16 - Seth Rollins' Full Ring Entrance
01:16

Practically speaking, this means a few things. For one, the mashing is finally over, and submitting someone is now about working a part of their body, and having the dexterity to outmaneuver them in the mini-game, which is a lot more like how submission holds actually work. More exciting is the fact that you can theoretically submit someone early in a match if you outplay them if you get good at that mini-game. Not only is that potentially exciting, but it also helps characters with submission finishers, who almost never got the win off their first finisher due to the nature of the old system.

The combined effect of all this from the handful of matches I played is that WWE 2K16 plays more like an actual wrestling match looks, and that it engages me in ways wrestling games typically haven’t.
 

Rell84shots

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I've read some of the comments on IGN and it's not surprising that people are pissed, the new reversal system has the people who claimed they were great at playing theses games pressed. The reversal system is going to weed out all the spammers online and actually make them have to play honest.
 
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For starters, reversals are now an actual resource you need to manage. More technically sound wrestlers might have a stock of five, while others might have four or three. Every time you successfully reverse a move, you lose one stock, which will begin to regenerate very slowly over time.

2K is worse than THQ at this point. fukk all of that shyt.
 

Tanahashi Coates

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I've read some of the comments on IGN and it's not surprising that people are pissed, the new reversal system has the people who claimed they were great at playing theses games pressed. The reversal system is going to weed out all the spammers online and actually make them have to play honest.

They need to calm down with that. 2K14 was the last game I played online and if someone wasn't drag or taunt glitching, they would reverse every damn move. People online forget that it's a performance based event, it really doesn't matter if you lose :mjlol:. I would get 1500 points to an opponents 950 even during losses because I try to make matches as dramatic and close to an actual match.
 

Tommy Fits

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They need to calm down with that. 2K14 was the last game I played online and if someone wasn't drag or taunt glitching, they would reverse every damn move. People online forget that it's a performance based event, it really doesn't matter if you lose :mjlol:. I would get 1500 points to an opponents 950 even during losses because I try to make matches as dramatic and close to an actual match.
I used to hate that or when they would use a caw with every attribute to 99
 
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They're preventing reversal fests how is this a bad thing?
The fukk is a reversal fest? Limitations in video games are always a bad thing. Reversal's are defense, you can't spam defense. If you can only reverse a few moves each match, that's the dumbest feature in any wrestling game. If the opportunity to reverse a move is there, why would I not try to reverse it?
 
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