apsham

Yeah, last time I was apprehensive to use it since you unlocked stuff through going through modes before - and I thought I wouldn't play the mode if I already had the unlock but this time, good call.

The decision to go without voices was one of the better ones too - this way they can have/add literally anything instead of relying on voicing talent which can turn out meh in a lot of cases.

I was trying to think of a game that did that - and I thought of something else that annoys the shit out of me. Low health warning noises. Not the ones that tell you "hey man, you're low on health" but the ones that are like "HEY YOUR HEALTH IS LOW! HEY YOUR HEALTH IS LOW! HEY YOUR HEALTH IS LOW! HEY YOUR HEALTH IS LOW! HEY YOUR HEALTH IS LOW! HEY YOUR HEALTH IS LOW!" I'm looking at you, Zelda.

There's permanent versions of that verses other methods that I'm fine with - and I guess that really means you have to be okay with regenerating health too. The Gears games for instance will bloody up your screen until you find some cover.

I'm so happy that online entrances coming back means that Whose Gimmick Is It Anyways is a thing again.

I grabbed it because around here - at least for launch - all 4 of the 360 games come with it and I can't really pass that up.

Don't really know what the framerate issue is - you playing PS4 or XB1? I'm on the One and I've been playing 6 man battle royals just fine - nothing wrong with the controls either so I'm wondering if it's a console thing.

You could carry that over, yeah.

Only been in career a little bit - it's improved in certain ways. You can entirely skip NXT if you do good enough in the tutorial - for instance one reviewer skipped NXT and was put 5th place in the ranks for the US title. I haven't played enough to see how old it gets, I've read that the first little bit is a slog until the Paul Heyman storyline opens up and you can decide to become a Heyman guy or go after Brock. On the plus side VC isn't as bad as it was years prior - since there's no Showcase mode you unlock stuff with VC so you can unlock who and what you want in league with improving your MyCareer wrestler with VC. But now you also get VC for everything you participate in - exhibition matches, matches/promos in Universe mode, etc.

Alright - spent the evening with the game and here are my thoughts. - Straight off the bat - commentary is horrid. Probably the worst that it has ever been for one reason or another - clearly it wasn't a huge focus this year. I can still see why - in different sports games there isn't the level of customization that the WWE games push, if you spend time recording lines about Wrestler A and the player changes their alignment or gimmick then it just looks bad - so generic lines being 80% I can almost deal with, if they made sense in their placement. So many times the wrong finisher was called (or a finisher was called during a standard move, and it wasn't even the finisher) or lines were called out for no reason. I love the new promo system (more on that later) but when a brawl broke out in one of them, the commentators started talking about it like it was a drawn out match. Same thing for a post match beatdown - they could've really just turned it off for that. I'll just continue zoning out and watching/listening to something else during matches most likely. - Presentation details are great - from spotlights following the wrestlers when they leave the ring and move up the ramp to the new camera angles when you get to the different sides of the ring. Backstage is really nice too - a loading screen to move back there but everything is loaded when you do including a split screen view when you get too far. Not to mention Universe mode having show openings now and the menu system that I really like - it's simple, fast and it doesn't rely on outdated stale images - instead you get the actual models from the game. This is the same for the pictures for the select a wrestler - which is nice because you don't have a mix of real pictures, models from CAWs and models from DLC people. - Creation suite is fucking amazing this year. From instantly being able to move attires over to other people, to being able to mix music as much as you want or need to - and I've really just touched the surface. - I can go back to button mashing for submissions! Yay! - The fatigue system that kicks someone out of the ring when they take too much damage in a triple threat match is amazing. Had a great Charlotte/Bayley/Sasha match where, as Bayley, I took a thrashing and had almost no chance of winning. Sasha got Charlotte out of the ring and I was able to recover enough for a Bayley-To-Belly and a win.

Christ, I love the new menus and they're one of the bullet points that I've read in most reviews as being a huge positive. They're quick, snappy and easy to get through. I don't exactly know how a menu comes off as cheap. Sad that music gets blocked on recording. Took me ten minutes to make an attire/music swap of Big Boss Man coming out in Steve Austin's attire complete with glass shattering turning into Hard Times.

With my "no risk" leeway due to the return policy I get at EB Games I decided to grab this and try it out. From reviews it seems that they've gone the extra mile for customizability and I'm going to see if I can get into Universe mode heavily this year. I like the idea of being able to splice together theme musics instantly or instantly switch up attires, etc - so I'm going to play around with that tonight and see how I enjoy it. And yeah - 2K has absolutely improved the game from where it was, I can't doubt that for a moment. The growing pains while they find the right balance between realism and what is actually fun gameplay wise sucks for sure but I like the improvements this year in terms of a redone/toggable submission system, making tag matches actually finishable from a gameplay standpoint, ladder matches less wonky, etc.

There's a lot of stuff leading up to the main story missions - in the sense that you have to unlock the ability to face the bosses by taking down their side businesses. Varied enough since what you're doing to disrupt them depends on the business that they're running - and then after the fact you can do things to increase the business' take.

Mafia III is for sure scratching my Godfather itch - I missed the 'taking over a city' aspect of those games that I never really feel was done right in any other series. The setting and atmosphere is down right awesome too. For some reason in most games I never really used the "bring a person to sell you ammo" or "bring a new car" to you, I'd just grab a new car and roll.. but in this game I find myself doing that a lot and also walking to objectives quite a bit.

What the fuck. EA Access is putting up Mirror's Edge Catalyst (!?) and UFC 2 in November and Battlefront in December.

Allowing custom uploads like the 2K series games do should be the next step for them. Really adds a lot for games that allow this kind of stuff. Can confirm because I drove a Land Rover that was painted to look like a Jurassic Park jeep in Forza last night.

I haven't been following Mafia 3 (out today) but I was reading a preview today and I'm midly tempted. Never expected to see a game accurately attempt to replicate segregation without an allegory or fantasy reality.

I wouldn't take anything like that worth a grain of salt on there.

Oh and it's such a minor thing and it sucks that you have to play a few hours to unlock it - but the Groove Music Radio station is really cool. If you weren't aware you can use Microsoft's music streaming service (30 day trial is what I'm using) to create a playlist that turns into a radio station in the game - and you can create and select between multiples. It's really neat - if you're at a festival you hear the music like it was outside your car, if you go through a cave the signal cuts out, etc.

They know what they're doing. The game is constantly throwing new things your way - at the end of every event you get money, XP and fans and then you've unlocked something else, now you have more skill points, you've unlocked a spin of the roulette wheel, you've opened up a new section of events, it's time to go back and upgrade your festival to get even more options for races. And with all of that it doesn't feel pushy either. It's up to you to see the waypoints and when you log back in the driver navigation will say something like "we haven't checked out ___ yet, would you like me to set a waypoint now" and you can just ignore it or get on with it. Had a lot of fun with it tonight and playing with the girlfriend. Everything she asked about it 'are there cops?' and 'do I have to go somewhere to get my car fixed?' was pretty much answered by me realizing that no, you didn't have to do any of that stuff because the devs realized that it just wouldn't be all that fun. It's a big sandbox and you play around in it however you want.

Horizon 3 is the Burnout Paradise next step that I've been waiting for.

I keep having this issue in My Career where I go on a tear, get the team up by 16-20 points and then I get taken off for the last quarter and somehow we've lost by 20 or more points. I get that it's balancing things out but with the meager rewards for playing a good game it all seems rather pointless in the end.

Haha I totally named MyTeam the Expos after finding this online while searching for names for a Montreal basketball team. I need to edit it to get the other sizes for the arena though.. and get around to making some uniforms.

I know one thing that is different for sure - stealing is now viable for me instead of just being an instant foul. I saw that pointed out in a review actually.

You can just simulate your own games and get VC, right? That's one of the tips I see every year. Another thing is the MyNBA2K17 app which allows you to get 500 VC a day from playing quick matches, a free daily pick for VC and some other options. Guess the philosophy here is to be patient and everything adds up. Either way.. I am loving the game. I don't know what it is about this year that just gels with me, but something does. In the past I was always terrible on defence and out of position but this year is a total turn around in that aspect. I can somewhat properly cover the man that I'm defending and move about the court in a way that makes me look like I know what the hell I'm doing.