Now, most shows will require you to go talk to someone before a match can begin, but there are a bunch of side quests to engage in here. If you want, you can rush to the gorilla position and head out to that week's match, but if you're the "do everything person," there are conversations to listen in on, people to talk to, and fights to start. Now, picking backstage brawls might sound foolish (and in a way, I found it to be), but every match or fight you engage in rewards you with Superstar points that you can apply to your move damage and damage resistance -- it's like a mini-RPG in a way. 

                                           

Trouble is, leveling up your attributes is a bit of a bitch and not worth it. I've done every Road to WrestleMania, and I didn't find the leveling process worth much -- you have to pick fights with every Superstar backstage to get enough points to really max out your character. On top of that and how cool it is to see free roaming return, there's definitely something to be desired here. Although all the Superstars are voiced, mouths flap like mad and there's no lip syncing to speak of. On top of that, the backstage environments are empty caverns and the brawls you get into seem to go on way too long. 


                           
Here's the thing, though: even with those stumbles, I dig this year's Road to WrestleMania. Sure, the free roaming can be really cheesy and almost seem low budget at times, but the stories themselves are rad. Who doesn't want to see Edge and Christian reeking of awesomeness, Jericho getting Pedigreed on a car, or John Cena dealing with Randy Orton's mind games? Toss in that the Undertaker's storyline takes WWE SmackDown vs. Raw to places I never thought THQ would, and you've got a truly unique mode. There are decisions to make and different paths to go down. Sure, it's really rough around the edges, but the characters you unlock and the stories you get to be a part of make it cool. 

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 empowers players more than ever to to define their gameplay experiences in a dynamic and ever-changing WWE. Along the way, gameplay scenarios change based on player decisions, allowing for more spontaneous WWE action in and out of the ring. Players can also enjoy a greater level of interactivity and have increased control of their destinies in the game’s popular Road to WrestleMania story-driven mode.

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 has more creative tools than ever to customize their Superstars, finishing moves and story designs. In addition, searching and sharing content are greatly simplified with improvements to the highly regarded WWE Community Creations feature, which generated nearly 10 million downloads, including more than 7.5 million Created Superstars, 500,000 story designs and 500,000 finishing moves in its franchise debut.

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 also features more than 70 of today's prominent WWE Superstars and Divas. In addition, a new physics system will ensure all matches and object interactions look and feel unique, dynamic and unpredictable to capture the full essence of the WWE Universe.

                

                                                          

                  

There are 30 WWE characters in WWE All Stars, and they range from Legends such as Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and Mr. Perfect to current Superstars such as Triple H and Randy Orton. The fact that so many of these people have already appeared in SmackDown vs. Raw might seem like a turnoff, but WWE All Stars goes out of its way to not look or feel like the simulation franchise SVR is. 

That's basically the WWF No Mercy N64 control scheme at face value, but then things start getting complicated. Running at the ring doesn't let you slide into the ring; there's another button for that. One shoulder button blocks strikes and another one blocks grapples, but that's not the easiest thing to explain to someone just looking to jump into the fun. Once your finisher meter is full, you tap buttons to set off a taunt that activates it, but if you're punched during the taunt you lose it, and people rarely stay down all that long, but there's a way to hold the buttons to taunt and have the guy get up into a dazed state that automatically trig-- 

I'm not making this up. This is supposed to be pick up and play. 

It's good that there's depth to WWE All Stars' controls. There are even character classes (Brawlers, Big Men, Acrobats and Grapplers) that come with unique abilities and moves that are sure to appeal to people who want to put hours and hours into learning this game. I like the idea of that but not the execution. There's no tutorial to teach you the ins and outs of classes and chain grapples, so I never saw these nuances unless I played with one of the developers. When I'd sit down and play a friend, we were brawling to be the last man standing. When I'd play the computer, it would be super-cheap in terms of how long it stayed on the mat and never taught me how to chain together attacks so as to end up on the top rope. 

There's a fine line between having a strategy and needing to have expert knowledge, and I think WWE All Stars goes a bit too far into hardcore expert town. 

You'll take these moves into a few different matches and modes. The gameplay is solid across the board, but nothing is all that different -- it's just the packaging. The standout among all the WWE All Stars options is Fantasy Warfare. These are 15 Legend/Superstar matches the developers setup as a battle for a specific title -- HBK vs. Undertaker for the title of "Mr. WrestleMania," Mr. Perfect vs. the Miz for the title of "Perfectly Awesome," etc. The matches themselves are just fights you could have in exhibition, but each pairing begins with a slick, narrated video package combining promos and WWE footage of both wrestlers. The packages are small things, but they really set the matches up well and make it feel like you're doing something epic. 

There are three "Path of Champions," but these are just ten matches where you take a wrestler and work your way to fighting Orton, Undertaker or DX. There's a cutscene here or there, but it's just the guy you're fighting your way to talking into the camera. Oddly, you can't play the tag team path cooperatively.

Outside of that, you're left with a simple create-a-wrestler, exhibition matches -- cage match, extreme rules match, elimination, tag match, etc. -- and then the ability to take those matches online. In my experience, online is playable but does suffer from latency issues. Having your command be delayed a second or two is a big blow to a game that is so reversal heavy. 

WWE All Stars is fun -- I enjoy the cartoony colors, crazy moves and ability to just jump in and play -- but it has plenty to improve on for next time. A detailed tutorial is needed, the modes and matches tend to all feel the same, and online should be more responsive. Wrestling fans will have fun when they pick this one up but I don't know how long it'll last as it's a bit shallow. On the flip side, the nuanced combat isn't going to suck in players looking for a simple, arcade experience.

I'll start with one word:  FRESH.  The game is just that.  It's truly fresh.

Take this from a guy who admittedly has listened to a lot of video game hype from various companies over the years and fallen for it, only to be let down time and time again.  WWE '12 is not one of those games.  This is a game that will thrill you beyond just about any other wrestling game you've ever played before and it will so do in so very many ways.

The presentation in this game is a huge improvement over SVR11.  The camera angles they have added really do make the matches seems more realistic and honestly just downright cool to watch.  During the time I had with the game there were several instances where a certain camera angle would come up and I was really thinking to myself, "Wow, how have we lived without this in wrestling games?".  Camera angles may sound like a minute detail but they make such a big impact during matches.  And this is most definitely the case with WWE '12.  You'll notice it almost immediately.  Pull off a big move and you'll see the camera do something you've never seen before in a WWE game.  Maybe it'll pull back or maybe it'll go diagonal or maybe it'll go to a new ringside angle.  A few times while playing I noticed something else I really liked and hopefully it's not a bug.  Over the course of the matches I played in, every once in awhile it went to a sort of ringside/diagonal view and the camera seemed to have been moving just slightly but it looked as if there was really a cameraman holding the camera because it shook in very realistic human movements and it looked more realistic than ever before.  Just one of those tiny moments that may seem small but add in to the overall feell of the game.  It's all fresh (there's that key word I mentioned) and affects the feel of your matches like you can't even imagine until you've played it.

The audience looks a lot more like real human beings and you'll notice a lot fewer repeats in the crowd.  These improvements make a big-time impact on the overall feel of your matches.  Crowds matter.  

In addition to presentation, THQ added new ring and rope physics.  Everything looks and feels so much more authentic now.  Plus now your opponents do sell but they won't stay down as long as they used to in order to keep the action moving to keep things fun.  These improvements really are nice improvements over the past WWE games

With the new predator technology matches flow smooth as silk.  The new timing-based reversal system helps in this.  When I first heard of this new addition I was somewhat pessimistic about it's implementation but after using it, all doubts are gone.  It works and it works well.  There's a slight learning curve involved but you'll quickly get the hang of it.  Helping with the match fluidity is how now when your opponent is knocked down, he won't lay there forever while you just stand there.  Now he'll sell the move but get up more quickly (and in pain) to let the action continue.  I don't know if my poorly-worded report here is helping give you a picture of what I mean but I can tell you right now...once you get that controller in hand and fight your way through a match then you'll fully understand what I mean by "smooth as silk".  This year everything just flows and matches are more fun than they've been a very, very long time.

Another cool feature to be welcomed back by WWE games fans is the return of the ability to store finishers.  You can store either 2...maybe 3?  I don't remember exactly, sorry.  But regardless, it's back and it's awesome.  Can't use your finisher in the allotted time?  No problem.  It'll be stored and you can hit it later but with slightly less impact.  For those of us who really enjoy "telling a story" in the ring old-school style, this comes in handy.    Add to that the new "wake-up taunt" feature where you can perfectly set-up your opponent for your finisher and you can see clearly see that THQ has been listening to the fans.

This year the grapple moves have shifted back to the face buttons instead of the right analog stick we've had the past few years and let me tell ya, it's so nice to return to this style again.  Back when THQ first introduced the analog grapples, I really dug them.  But for me, that grapple system got old pretty quickly and I longed for the old face button grapples of SYM and HCTP.  Finally they're back and it feels sooo good.  

he WWE '12 roster is one you'll never forget.  From what I've been told there are 62 wrestlers on disc including unlockables and a total of 77 playable characters including DLC (I didn't count because I was having too much fun in RTWM, exhibition 2p and cpu, CAW, and CAA).  I've been blessed on behalf of The WLF with seeing much of this roster and I can tell you that it's a tremendous one.  People are going to love the surprises that are in store.  In my opinion this is one of the best rosters we've ever seen in a SVR/WWE game (not including LOWM of course because that roster was nearly unbeatable).

And of course anyone not included on the in-game or dlc rosters can easily be created in caw/cas (create-a-wrestler/create-a-superstar).  In the build I played, caw is mostly the same as last year.  For more examples of this and to see the new background a the few new hairstyles, go HERE.  As you can tell, not much has changed.  Not that keeping most of last year's caw mode is really a bad thing.  Take a look at many of SVR11's caws available for download on community creations and you'll be glad that they didn't change it too much.  It's a fantastic caw mode as it stands.  But with that said, I would have loved if a few things could have been improved such as the preset skin-tones, design transparency, and super-fat body morphing limitations.  These three setbacks were all still present in the build I played.  Also there are still no arm tassles for Ultimate Warrior caws.  But that's not to say that these issues might not be fixed before the game is released.  Time will tell.  *fingers crossed*

There is now a standing leg drop that looks like we could use for Hogan's finisher hopefully.  Plus I noticed the turnbuckle 10 punch is back (while the crowd counts along)!!!  I can't tell you how happy I was to see that again.  Bryan and Cory told us that this year no moves were taken out so you all can sleep at night.  lol  They said no moves taken out but a lot more were added and I could see that from checking out create-a-moveset.  Unfortunately I'm not allowed to really expand upon what I saw in create-a-moveset so other than the moves you've seen revealed in other reviews, you'll have to wait.

Regarding created wrestlers, many of you have already heard about the new call-names available and it's an awesome addition since now our Randy Savage caws can finally be announced as "The Macho Man"!

Besides the ability to create ANYBODY you want in caw, there are of course several high profile legends on disc to unlock such as:

"Double A" Arn Anderson
Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat
"Road Warrior" Animal
"Road Warrior" Hawk
Kevin "Diesel" Nash
Booker T
"Big Van" Vader
Demolition Ax
Demolition Smash
Eddie Guerrero
Vince McMahon
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin
Jerry "The King" Lawler

...and there are more surprise wrestlers to be revealed by THQ at a later date.  

When I stood at ringside for the live roster reveal in Los Angeles, I screamed my fat-ass for this list of legends and I know most of you would have as well.  We've got Arn Anderson in his first ever WWE sim game,  Steamboat makes his welcome return from last year (and still looks great this year), Kevin "Diesel" Nash is back again after his half-decade absence,  Booker T makes his triumphant & royal return,  Vader appears in a WWE game for the very first time since In Your House '96 (besides being dlc in '09 but this year looks MUCH better),  Eddie, Vince, and Austin are back and look awesome.  Jerry Lawler is finally a playable character.  Plus Legion of Doom - The Road Warriors stomp their way back onto the sim-based WWE Games scene to dominate the tag-team division.  But wait....making their first appearance since 1991's WWF WrestleFest is DEMOLITION and they're not about to let LOD run the tag-team division without a fierce battle!  This is actually the FIRST time Ax has ever been in a video game.  If you recall, WrestleFest featured Ax and Crush.  So this is literally the very first time the original, most popular version of Demolition has ever appeared in a video game!  Add it all up (plus the hidden and yet to be announced wrestlers) and it's all VERY exciting

So there are all these excellent legends included in the game and of course all of the awesome caws to come.  But what about titles?  Well....I can't say that much about it yet but I can tell you that you will love the selection of titles available in WWE '12.    You all know me.  I'm old-school through and through.  I can tell you right now that you'll be pleased with the selection of unlockable titles available.  Of course not every title is included but I know you'll love what they give us just like I do. 

My favorite addition to this year's game is the all-new Create-An-Arena!

Create-An-Arena is freaking fantastic.  Let me get it out of the way first though:  No you can't edit the stage area this year (possibly next year) but you can edit almost everything else.  And besides that, the stage looks great anyway.  Around the ring area you can edit the ring mat, apron, ropes, turnbuckles, floor mat, crowd barricades, announcer's tables, etc.  There is so much you can do with this mode.  It's truly a dream come true for us old school fans.  Finally we will have our caws fighting in proper arenas!