Addressing The Biggest Issues With WWE '13

[CONight]

I've played with the game for a while now, made several CAWs/etc., played a bunch of online matches, and a few weeks of Universe. I still feel I need to play some more Universe to truely sort some of the big complaints about that part of the game, (really, I haven't even gotten through the first PPV yet, I know, I know...), but I think I can comment a little bit about it.

 

One brief note I just have to make before diving in: After seeing the mandible claw nerfed to not even a submission move with Foley actually in the game no less, I was excstatic to find that we atleast finally got the Von Erich Claw! Plus it's actually a submission!!

 

Ok, ok, back on topic now:

 

 

1. Serious Lack of 2-Counts

 

I have to admit I didn't notice how glaring this was until I saw people complaining about it on these forums. Then I started paying closer attention to how it played out in matches I was playing. I have seen alot of kickouts from finishers after just a 1 count and that is indeed the tip of the iceberg. I do have to admit that I have seen a few 2-counts, but they are rather few and far between. So what's going on? Well before we really sort this out, we have to take a step back and look at the big change/difference in how this whole thing works in WWE '13, and it is indeed very different.

 

Pryor to WWE '13, there were mainly 3 variables involved in pins/counts. 1. Difficulty setting 2. stamina of your superstar and your opponent, and 3. the level of your finisher gage. With WWE '13 we have a new feature that has made the equation a little more complicated: Match Experience (Quick/Normal/Epic.) So now we have another variable that effects how stamina & finisher gage increase or decrease, in addition to the difficulty setting. I should note that I actually like this feature, and I hope these issues don't lead THQ to removing it. It seems to me that there could be a conflict between the difficulty setting and the Match Experience setting that is unbalancing things a little. Match Experience really is just another way of adjusting some of the same match variables that the difficulty level affects. I'll actually have to some more matches with various configurations to really pin this down. If you guys want to try as well, try playing matches with various combinations of easy/normal/pro/legend and quick/normal/epic match types. It's probably best to set a difficulty then try each match type, then rinse & repeat with the other difficulty settings. I've been playing mostly on the 2 hardest difficulties, although I did play the Attitude Era stuff at normal difficulty for a bit. I really wouldn't use Attitude Era mode as a good test for this because there's alot of other things going on under the hood there, despite what THQ would have you believe. I'm sure many of you have already played with some of these combinations. I'd be interested in hearing what you've all experienced thus far.

 

2. Lack of Cutscenes in Universe

 

Oh boy, this one's a bit more complicated. I've been actively exploring this issue more than others. It's been suggested to setup rivals & allies ahead of time to get cutscenes going. I've been gradually doing this as certain superstars are booked in matches. Through this process I have seen a slow increase in cutscene appearances, albeit with some anomalies along the way. It had been stated pryor to the game's release that we wouldn't have to worry about the game splitting up our tag teams in WWE '13, and yet early on I got one such cutscene. Even after I turned OFF the forming/breaking up tag team stories in that part of the universe options, I still got such a cutscene. Fortunately though, the game never actually broke up the affected tag teams. So ok, whatever. We'll see what happens further on. I've also yet to see one of the touted interactive cutscenes letting the player control the outcome.

The glaring flaw with Universe in WWE '12 that I saw was the exact same matches being booked over and over again by the game. It got to the point where I was just manually booking each and every match. This problem was solved for WWE '13, but I believe it was solved the wrong way. If the suggestion of manually setting allies & rivals holds true and the cutscenes start rolling at full steam, (which some of you may already be experiencing), then this is really a poor design choice. It also makes a little sense. I think THQ greatly improved, though not completely eliminated, the problem of superstars from one brand/show showing up auto-booked on another. Therefore, if you have superstars who's rivals/allies are all exclusively from a different show/brand, the storyline system has essentially become broken. Again, it's a poor design choice. What should have been done to remedy the aforementioned WWE '12 issue is let the game set rivals & allies similar to WWE '12's method, but based on matches booked. WWE '12 seemingly didn't apply changes from player-booked matches very well. The "remarkable match" concept seems to have been completely scrapped, and this I think was a mistake. The only problem was the inability to interfere in such a match and how those matches were very much written in stone. Atleast if you had a "remarkable match", you knew you where almost guaranteed to get some cutscenes. Once again though, the simple solution is that the game just needs to be made to recognize, "gee, if these two guys are fighting or if this guy is interfering with that guy, they ought to be rivals!" and so forth. It's really not that hard to implement. I'm not sure how much of this can be resolved via a patch, but I guess manually setting allies/rivals will atleast make the matter manageable.

 

3. Online play unfair/broken?

 

I've played a number of matches online, and I'm not exactly seeing the big problem here. I've seen complaints about spamming run-grapples, so for a while I've purposely avoiding doing this. I've mentioned in other threads how I've defended myself against other players who dealt me an onslaught of run-grapples, so I'm not going to repeat myself adnausium again here. Seriously though, spamming of moves has existed since the early days of the Street Fighter series and wrestling games were once every bit as much button mashers as those other fighting games. People know how to deal with that sort of thing in those games even today, and it's alot harder to do in those games than it is in modern wrestling games like WWE '13. Lag is nothing new either. The internet didn't just spring up yesterday. Just learn to adapt, I did when I had some lag and even won some matches while lagged. Playing online in WWE '13 has actually been more enjoyable for me than in some past wrestling games. I'll continue to take note of how my online matches play out though.

 

Well I think those are the things most complained about, did I miss anything?

[maskedmaniac]

While I didn't read most of this I noticed you left out the most serious issue of them all, the AI is as dumb as a bag of rocks.

[Broski Barrage]

While I didn't read most of this I noticed you left out the most serious issue of them all, the AI is as dumb as a bag of rocks.

[D'Evil]

The AI f cking sucks and because of this the game has been up on the rack collecting dust, because I sure as hell don't have all that much incentive to play it.

[BestInTheWorld614]

Instead of remarkable matches there are highlight matches which are pretty much the same but don't show up as much

[maskedmaniac]

The whole gameplay and look of the game has to be overhauled for next years game if there is any possibility of me buying it again. I'm tired of the same look for CAWs each year, and the gameplay is the worst. I can spam a running clothesline on the computer about 10 times in a row before it finally decides to reverse it, and I hate how I can punch/kick the computer opponent 8 or 10 times in a row before it decides to punch me back. You'd think with over a decade of making wrestling games they would have nailed the perfect formula for artificial intelligence. I can play WCW vs the nWo World tour on the N64 from '96, almost 20 muther*censored*ing years ago and the ai is so much smarter than it is in THQs latest offering.

[nogoodraida]

Reversal fests.. weather on high difficulties vs. AI or with other people, its unbalanced, its too easy to reverse chain grapples.

[abhunter]

You guys get lack of cutscenes? I get a cutscene or 2 almost every single match,

[Original IT Factor]

I have been getting some more cutscenes in my AE Universe but only because I don't change the attires, match or participants & so far I have had 1 branching cutscene (I was Bret Hart & I could choose to either shake Undertakers hand or attack him, I pressed attack & turned Bret Heel) but we don't exactly have control if even changing a wrestlers attire disables a cutscene...

[tehcronka]

lack of cutscene really !? you guy need to stop with that , you guy just dont know how to handle universe its plain and simple .... dont simulate .. dont change the card .... and dont set up rival and allies its not working !!!! my raw show 3 out 5 cutscene , smackdown 3 out 5 cutscene , my nxt show ( unbelievable ) 5 out 5 cutscene !!!!! all you have to do is erase all rival and allies ( you can keep tag team allies tough ! ) and let say you have 20 superstars split it up ..10 faces ..10 heel ! first week run interference with whoever you want to .. then second week you good to go ! ( seriously set up rival and allies thats bullshit never work for me ) ... but branchinf storyline thats another story..line lol !

[CONight]

The whole gameplay and look of the game has to be overhauled for next years game if there is any possibility of me buying it again. I'm tired of the same look for CAWs each year, and the gameplay is the worst. I can spam a running clothesline on the computer about 10 times in a row before it finally decides to reverse it, and I hate how I can punch/kick the computer opponent 8 or 10 times in a row before it decides to punch me back. You'd think with over a decade of making wrestling games they would have nailed the perfect formula for artificial intelligence. I can play WCW vs the nWo World tour on the N64 from '96, almost 20 muther*censored*ing years ago and the ai is so much smarter than it is in THQs latest offering.

 

I take it you're playing on easy or normal. Try upping the difficulty setting. I play near the highest difficulty and the CPU player gets in their fare share of reversals.

 

Also, and one thing I failed to mention when discussing the 2-count stuff, you have to take into consideration the ratings of the superstars involved, as well as momentum when playing in Universe mode. If you're playing as the Undertaker with tons of momentum vs some superstar rated down in the 70s, (Ricardo is way down at 54, but I don't think you can even have him in a match), at the default momentum, the CPU won't be all that much competition. If you've downloaded the "accelerator" thing from the WWE Shop, (comes with fan axxess), you can raise the stats to make things a little more competitive if need be. So difficulty, Match Experience, stamina, finisher gage, rating, & momentum -- alot of variables this year, some fairly new to WWE games. The few 2-counts & lack of balance you guys are experiencing are symptoms of the same problem. Atleast at present we can manually adjust things to improve balance, but THQ will have to tighten up the system for WWE '14. They might be able to get some improvement via patch, but really it's something they'll have to rework for the next game.

[Aqfitz]

I decided to just skip the ai. I use two controllers to get great matches now

[maskedmaniac]

I decided to just skip the ai. I use two controllers to get great matches now

 

Really? As for the 2-count issue I've noticed it's a problem too, but I did have one match that was going back and forth and there were about 6 or 7 2-counts by the computer, some roll-ups but a lot of normal 2-count kick outs all in one match, then after that I got no 2-counts. Doesn't really matter though if the core game-play doesn't hold my interest.