uhhh here\'s some more stuff i just found
Japanese developer Yuke\'s has an extremely nice office. Most independent development houses over there don\'t have quite such posh accomodations, nor do they reside in such expensive parts of town (in this case, one of the more pleasant areas of Yokohama). But then again, most such developers haven\'t produced two million-selling blockbuster games, either.
From what we saw when we visited that office, it looks like that streak will continue. WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It (the game formerly known as SmackDown! 3) is not a substantial reworking or rethinking of the series, but it includes the same gameplay that has been so popular on the PlayStation, and not only is the new hardware enabling a remarkable leap forward in visual presentation, new game modes are made available by the PS2\'s graphical power. The biggest of all questions remains to be answered -- no, we don\'t know whether you can do the 3D through a table -- but this should still be a fine kickoff for the PlayStation 2\'s wrestling library.
The wrestler models were primarily what we were shown just before the Tokyo Game Show, animating within preliminary versions of the SmackDown, RAW, and pay-per view arenas, including a stadium patterned after the one that hosted Wrestlemania XVII. Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock were the only wrestlers complete enough to show, although they could perform animations specific to several other characters -- as those who tinkered around with SmackDown! 2\'s create-a-stable mode can attest, watching them dance like Too Cool was pretty entertaining.
Just standing still, though, they\'re impressive enough, with 800 polygons making up each wrestler\'s body and 500 for just the head. That will allow complex facial animations, from smiles to grimaces to, yes, the People\'s Eyebrow, adding up to a total of 1,000 different animations. Just Bring It is also the first SmackDown to incorporate motion-captured animation, although it will mainly be used for more natural movements -- walking, idle animations, and the like -- rather than wrestling moves. As you can see from the shots below, that animation will be matched by considerable smoothness of texturing and modeling in each character. Skin tones are more realistic, and there\'s more depth to musculature and other physical features. They\'re not just textured on anymore, but properly drawn in 3D. The engine handles all of this with ease, though, kicking the framerate up to a clean 60fps as compared to the PlayStation games\' 30.
Similar improvements have been made in the arenas, which have always been one of SmackDown!\'s strong points. Built with 3 times as many polygons (6,000 total), they are more expansive, more animated, and more interactive, especially with regards to lighting. The huge lighting rig above the ring appeared in the PlayStation games, but on PS2 it will direct many more complex realtime lighting effects. The upper reaches of the arenas are also modeled with greater detail, including animating crowds and billboards up in the cheap seats. Below, the character-specific signs and other tailored elements of the environment will return, and hopefully the ringside environment will become more interactive. The developers are looking to include more elements along the lines of the announcers\' tables in SmackDown! 2 -- hopefully, there will be even more items to break and fly off of around the ring.
Of course, if you want out-of-the-ring mayhem, you can always head a little farther away. Just Bring It will include a full complement of backstage areas, with the same kind of interactive environments that appeared in SmackDown! 2, and they will all be linked together, allowing hardcore and falls-count-anywhere matches to progress through a series of rooms and areas. The current listing of accessible areas is as follows:
SmackDown! Arena
Outside Lobby
Plaza
RAW Is War Arena
PPV Arenas
Parking Garage
Boiler Room
WWF New York
WWF Times Square
Entrances into the arena are likely to be expanded in comparison to the PlayStation games. Many fans have asked for something more realistic than the superimposition of characters over FMV, and Yuke\'s is hoping to oblige by integrating that FMV into the 3D arena for the complete entrance experience.
That would be a tall order, considering the number of wrestlers included, especially since every character is going to demand much more modeling time. That\'s likely why the wrestler list has contracted in comparison to the PlayStation games, although the listing we have is preliminary -- the figure we\'re given for the final version is "35 to 50."
Click here for the current wrestler list.
WCW wrestlers are a possibility, but that decision is in the hands of the suits, not the developers. Even if they don\'t appear, though, you can create them or any other character from a selection of more than 1,000 edit parts. That\'s not as many as SmackDown! 2 (which had 2,500), but it\'s still a substantial array of cosmetic options, and those options will be made available by an improved GUI, with more animating elements and other nifty stuff.
Created and licensed wrestlers can compete in a total of 67 different match types, counting all the different combinations of matches and stipulations. That figure is rather stretching it, but there\'s still an awful lot of different possibilities, including six-man matches and eight-man battle royales (although only four human players are supported as yet). The Royal Rumble should be much closer to the real-life mayhem, too. Table and TLC matches are included for those of a garbagey bent, and the developers are hoping (as we are) that the table-breaking mechanics will be a little more versatile than before. No changes in that area are confirmed, however.
Click here for the current match type list.
SmackDown! Just Bring It, as with SmackDowns past, is guaranteed to spawn its share of mysteries while it goes through development. The Season mode, for example, is still a very big question mark, although it\'s one of the areas most in need of improvement (you wouldn\'t believe the number of players who couldn\'t even get their wrestlers in a match in that mode). We can be fairly sure, however, that it will live up to the standards of presentation set in the first two games -- though they were both in need of improvement, they were leaps ahead of the competition in terms of realism and gameplay. Check back in a couple of days for the latest news from E3, where we\'ll get a new look at what Yuke\'s and THQ have in store.
-- David Smith
Match List
1. Single Match - No Manager
2. Single Match - With Manager
3. Tag Match - Normal
4. Tag Match - With Manager
5. Tag Match - Tornado Tag
6. Six-Man Tag Match - Normal
7. Six-Man Tag Match - Tornado Six-Man
8. Handicap - One on Two
9. Handicap - One on Tag
10. Handicap - One on Three
11. Royal Rumble
12. King of the Ring - Normal
13. King of the Ring - "Amazing"
14. Hardcore - Single
15. Hardcore - Tornado Tag
16. Hardcore - Tornado Six-Man
17. Hardcore - Triple Threat Tornado Tag
18. Hardcore - One on Two
19. Hardcore - One on Three
20. Hardcore - Triple Threat
21. Hardcore - Fatal Four-Way
22. Hardcore - Special Referee
23. Hardcore - Time-Limit Title Match
24. Falls Count Anywhere - Single
25. Falls Count Anywhere - Tornado Tag
26. Falls Count Anywhere - Tornado Six-Man
27. Falls Count Anywhere - Triple Threat Tornado Tag
28. Falls Count Anywhere - One on Two
29. Falls Count Anywhere - One on Three
30. Falls Count Anywhere - Triple Threat
31. Falls Count Anywhere - Fatal Four-Way
32. Falls Count Anywhere - Special Referee
33. Survival - Triple Threat
34. Survival - Fatal Four-Way
35. Survival - Lumberjack
36. Survival - Battle Royal (Six men)
37. Survival - Battle Royal (Eight men)
38. Cage - Single
39. Cage - Tornado Tag
40. Cage - Triple Threat
41. Cage - Fatal Four-Way
42. Hell in a Cell - Single
43. Hell in a Cell - Tornado Tag
44. Hell in a Cell - Triple Threat
45. Hell in a Cell - Fatal Four-Way
46. I Quit - Single
47. Special Referee - One Referee
48. Special Referee - Two Referee
49. Ladder - Single
50. Ladder - Tornado Tag
51. Ladder - Triple Threat
52. Ladder - Fatal Four-Way
53. Table - Single
54. Table - Tornado Tag
55. Table - Triple Threat
56. Table - Fatal Four-Way
57. TLC - Single
58. TLC - Tornado Tag
59. TLC - Triple Threat
60. TLC - Fatal Four-Way
61. Slobberknocker
62. Iron-Man - Single
63. Iron-Man - Special Referee
64. TLC for Title - Single
65. TLC for Title - Tornado Tag
66. TLC for Title - Triple Threat
67. TLC for Title - Fatal Four-Way
current wrestler list
The Rock
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Triple H
The Undertaker
Kurt Angle
Kane
Chris Jericho
Big Show
Rikishi
Chris Benoit
Edge
Christian
Buh Buh Ray Dudley
D-Von Dudley
Matt Hardy
Jeff Hardy
Lita
Billy Gunn
Chyna
William Regal
Tazz
Raven
Steven Richards
The Goodfather
Ivory
Grand Master Sexay
Scotty 2 Hotty
Hardcore Holly
Crash Holly
Molly Holly
Dean Malenko
Perry Saturn
Eddy Guerrero
Faarooq
Bradshaw
Test
Albert
Trish Stratus
Michael Cole
Vince McMahon
Stephanie McMahon
Shane McMahon
Earl Hebner
