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The Rey showcase mode is kind of neat as well. They don't do the "modern commentators in place of the original" bit that they normally do, and instead when you do certain objectives it kind of moves seamlessly from the game into video footage that Rey narrates - what he was thinking at the time, how the match is going, etc.

Just a few lunch session observations. I did an 8-woman battle royal, only one load time that was very fast at the start and no slowdown at all during entrances or more importantly during the match Clothing and other physics in entrances are greatly improved, have more texture and actually look/seem like they're on the person as they interact with hoods, sleeves, jackets, etc. Entrance commentary will likely get repetitive over time as it always does, but it sounds way more dynamic this time and even goes out of the way to reference when two particular wrestlers are in the same match (for instance, Asuka came out after Charlotte and they referenced this, and mentioned their history) Commentary in general is a lot more snappy, referencing things as they happened and went so far as to call out "a tapout with the Dis-Arm-Her but that's not going to save her in this match" - it also mentioned the wrestler's names more than just saying "she" or "they" took a move. Something that I somehow missed is that Universe mode gives you the ability to choose one wrestler and essentially only play their segments. That's something that is probably going to get me to play Universe more than I would normally and once the Community Creations start getting really good AEW and other wrestlers, it's going to be even better Community Creations are cross platform! That's a great addition.

Some reviews in progress are starting to pop up today, since the official release isn't until the end of the week I assume they'll be popping up through the week that aren't the hands-on previews that they've been putting out.

It's technically out tomorrow for Deluxe version owners, but I did the New Zealand thing again to play a bit early than that even.

I'm getting my hands on this today and I will say from the only thing I've seen so far. The tutorial is a Drew Gulak powerpoint at least, so it has that going for it. I worked through the tutorial and have a handle on the new gameplay. This is for SURE a pretty big change and I like it quite a bit. I was also able to get a traditional first match in before starting work today. I went with Macho Man vs. Bret Hart and I'm actually very, very impressed with this game. Everything felt good... the camera angles felt more natural, there were no frame-rate problems in fact everything moved very smoothly, the match was past paced, the combo system felt natural and both character models looked great - Macho Man hasn't looked "not bloated" for yeeeeeeeeears now.

I'm having a blast with my New Game+ already. 58 hours on my first run and I'm running into quests, NPCs and entire areas that I never knew existed before. Plus running with an entirely different build has me playing entirely differently, combined with me being probably over-levelled is a great way to try new playstyles and there's a ton in here. Every time I get a new weapon I kind of wanna see what I can do with it, I'm only now kind of understanding the depth of some of the more unique weapons arts.

Oh my god, I didn't even think of the triad that we'd have going with that, bahaha.

I think the combo system was revamped for two reasons; 1) To allow more moves to be put on a character for more variety, and to change it up from just being light attack, light attack, light attack, heavy attack (or whatever you had it set to) - if you think back to older games it'd just be The Rock's three hits followed up by the spit in his palm to finish it, or the last hit of a Shake, Rattle & Roll. There were a few moves that went into full move animations but they were few and far between. 2) To compliment the new reversal system that relies on you countering the type of hit that you're about to receive with the same button on your side.

Naw this is not replacing the normal grapple system - it's just extending on the combo system that already existed. They've show videos of the grapples, one of the first in-depth ones that came out I think. The grapple system is actually even a simplification going back to the Smackdown vs RAW games.

That's not what this is at all though? This is the combo system that current exists - where it's a bunch of strikes that would lead up to a certain move at the end. It's not the Attitude/Warzone series of inputs that you would do to just perform a series of moves, each button press is going to be an attack leading up to the big move at the end. This is just an expanded version of that - IIRC, most of these combos just had 1 or 2 variations and they'd almost always just end with a heavy strike. This has been in this line of games going back since the original Smackdown, they just have more ways to end now. It's in essence the kind of thing you're not going to know when you pick up and play a wrestler without looking at their move set anyways. You're going to know that you can start a combo always with a light strike, and then different combinations will always lead to a move and once you've done it so many times (especially if you use the same wrestler) you'll know that 2 light strikes and a heavy strike will be an enzuguri, etc. Just like you might not know that a grapple + up is going to be a vertical suplex until you do it.

Around 58 hours I finished the game. I think I unlocked the ability to do most of the endings as well, but went with one of them that had the longer buildup / the one I least wanted to put the work fully into to get again if I had to. I started my new game plus tonight as well and blasted through the game with my gear until I got to the point where I can respec, and now I've changed over to a dexterity/intelligence build. One step closer to doing a magic build that I... never get around to in these games.

It's going to be stuff like native 4K support, ray tracing, etc.

This is fair honestly. Of the group I'm talking to while we play it, two of us found strategies that worked in order to get through the boss but we had experience in all of the Souls games and some others went off and explored and fought the boss at a much higher level than us, and another still found that there was a indeed a path around.

I mean, it was during a sales call where you’d talk about that stuff anyways and they talked about how sales were growing and they were continuing to push it. Gamepass must’ve been part of that strategy.

The way that the gameplay and story goes, it makes sense you’re just confined to Star Lord - narrative couldn’t be as strong as it is if you’re just switching between party members like it was a Marvel Ultimate game. I heavily, heavily enjoyed my time with it.

There's a bit of difficulty frontloaded... if you just follow the critical path. The more you explore, the more you find, the more you experiment the easier it gets. VaatVidya has some really good Beginner's Guide and What To Do In The Early Game type videos for more guidance without really spoiling too much I think, they're great resources for new players I think.

I think that'd be the Vagabond which is the one I started with. Great armor and a headstart for the Strength based build I wanted to do.

I haven't posted here about it, but I have about 45 hours into this game now. And I love it.

This is literally the first time I've liked ALL the starters since the first generation. I'm going with the leaf kitty all the way.

Yeah - I've been there on day one for a few of them, but I am all in on going into this one without looking at anything. I've even kept away from trailers past the initial one because they normally expose all the bosses and the like. I wanna go into this without looking at any build guilds, etc.

I like the idea of that at the very least, that's neat. I read Polygon's preview on the GM Mode and it doesn't sound that terrible. I know it's a me thing, but I always start up grand plans for Universe mode stuff and then with no guidance or structure it just kind of fizzles out for me, so the framing of the GM Mode - which was never really terribly open ended in the older games anyways - kind of makes it seem like something that I'd put my time into more.

The trial exists so everyone has the chance to make the decision themselves - there's a 60fps performance mode (with noted "rare" dips) out of it, which might become a meme at some point - but if it holds up, it'd be nice to see and might be enough to pull me back in along with some other fixes to big annoyances I had.

I was going to say as well - Quick Resume is really hurt as a feature in something like Forza Horizon 5 that has that "always online" feel when it comes to making saves and tracking progress and giving rewards, etc.

I've had instances in games (Guardians of the Galaxy) that have never left my Quick Resume for days, and they've done some odd things like slowed down massively, been glitchy, etc. - it's all down to how the game makers implement their stuff. As a general rule, I'll hard close down something every 1-2 days or so depending on how much I'm using it but theoretically you should be fine. If things act up, it'd be step 1 of me problem solving though.

I'll let you keep believing that as long as you want, you poor innocent fella.