WWE '12 Roster Reveal Impressions

[Sunny]

Posted on Sunday, August 14th, 2011 by Sam West

THQ just blew the “Tall Show” away.

What an eventful week I’ve had. Working outdoors, managing a GameSpot.com Union that I’m now in charge of again, and now THQ’s Roster Reveal “SummerFest” Axxess event for WWE ’12. This event seemed like a very huge deal, especially after seein’ the setup for it earlier via THQ Creative Director, Cory Ledesma’s Twitter. I bought me 60 chicken “tenders” from Burger King, and downed one as soon as a new wrassler was revealed. Well…..the was the plan at first. Little did I know they would be quick about it. lol

The event began with a full-length in-game match between John Cena (“Superman”) and CM Punk (“General Zod”). I was pleasantly surprised that Punk had his “Cult of Personality” intro (and *SPOILER ALERT* outro) music as well as all his ‘trons, of which looked very good on the stage and around the arena. One thing I definitely noticed is the new gameplay system. You don’t need to have the controller to figure out the gameplay has changed drastically from last year’s title. The presentation and physics look superb, thanks to this new “Predator” engine. It made it even schweeter to find out that you’re no longer limited to the right analog stick for grapples. You use the buttons to do so, as well as a control configuration similar to WWE SmackDown!: Here Comes the Pain.

The Breaking Point submissions are a familiar feature. It reintroduces button-mashing to escape holds that brings the authenticity of “in a clinch” eef yew weeel (though I’m sure some moronic peeps will probably spam submissions online a lot). I saw instances of Punk having the opportunity to choose a body part to target on Cena. I don’t know if that’s just for grapples or for both that and submissions. If you’re ever caught in a certain submission, you can try to manually crawl to the rope for the break.

Trust me. You DO NOT wanna go the “A” route.

Another cool thing I saw is the return of the Momentum Shift, WWE ’12 style. After a prolonged beat-down on Cena, the former Doctor of Thuganomics went into a quick-time event for his “5 Moves of Doom”. A comeback may come and it may go as I saw Punk counter the session into an Arm Drag and continued the match from there. If Cena would’ve hit all of that, he would’ve earned an instant Signature and Finisher. By the way, once you hit your Signature and perform a wake-up taunt, you’ll earn a “super” finisher, a move more powerful than a regular one.

After that was done, it was time for the MMMAAAAAIIIINNNN EEEEVVVEENNNTTT! (I’m sure Todd Grisham says it better. Speaking of which…) In the ring, Grisham introduced The Miz and Jerry “The King” Lawler. They exchanged words. Blah-ba-de-blah-blah-blah. Finally all 3 segments of the Roster Reveal were shown. Below are all the Superstars, Divas, and Legends that were announced at this event (in alphabetical order)…..

“The Essence of Excellence” Alberto Del Rio

“A-Ry” Alex Riley

“Double-A” Arn Anderson

Axe

“The Glamazon” Beth Phoenix

“The World’s Largest Athlete” Big Show

Booker T

Chavo Guerrero

“Captain Charisma” Christian

“The Voice of the Voiceless” CM Punk

Cody Rhodes

“The American Dragon” Daniel Bryan

David “A-List” Otunga

Dolph Ziggler

“The Chosen One” Drew McIntyre

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (DLC)

“Latino Heat” Eddie Guerrero

“The Rated R Superstar” Edge

Evan “Air” Bourne

Eve

“The Personification of Domination” Ezekiel Jackson

“The Bizarre One” Goldust

“The One-Man Rock Band” Heath Slater

Husky Harris

“The All-American American” Jack Swagger

Jerry “The King” Lawler (DLC)

John Cena

“The Shaman of Sexy” John Morrison

Justin Gabriel

“The Big Red Monster” Kane

Kelly Kelly

“Big Daddy Cool” Kevin Nash/Diesel

Kofi Kingston

Layla

“The World’s Strongest Man” Mark Henry

Maryse

Mason Ryan

Michael McGillicutty

Michelle McCool

Mr. McMahon

Natalya

R-Truth

“The Viper” Randy Orton

Rey Mysterio

Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat

Road Warrior Animal

Road Warrior Hawk

“The Milan Miracle” Santino Marella

“The Celtic Warrior” Sheamus

Sin Cara

Smash

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin

Ted DiBiase, Jr.

“The Awesome One” The Miz

“The Game” Triple H

Tyson Kidd

“The Last Outlaw” Undertaker

“Big Van” Vader

“The Moscow Mauler” Vladimir Kozlov

Wade Barrett

“Master” William Regal

Yoshi Tatsu

“Long Island Iced Z” Zack Ryder

Lawler confirmed himself to be a DLC Legend. The only other two you won’t find are listed on WWE ’12‘s official roster page. There are 14 more slots left. One belonging to a mystery Superstar to be revealed this September, and the rest are for DLC. Get ready to shill out those “SwaggerBucks”.

Other shenanigans ensued, including an appearance from the challenger for the World Heavyweight Championship, Randy Orton, as well as a hilarious situation with he and Triple H near the end. Cory Ledesma tried to exchange words with The Miz, but failed horribly. (Maybe next year, Cory…or next…or next…or next…) And that was pretty much it for the show.

Right back at ya’, cover boy. lol

Oh yeah, Ledesma did mention a new feature in WWE ’12 called Create-An-Arena, where you’ll get to customize the ring and ringside areas with your own custom logos and such as well as the option to use old-school metal barricades.

There was also a mention of how we get to choose what goes on the Collector’s Edition of WWE ’12. Wait….I pre-ordered my regular copy a while back. Does that mean I’ll have’ta cancel it if I want this? Anyway, we’ll get to choose either the “People’s Edition” (featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) or the “Champ’s Edition” (featuring John Cena) to see what’ll make the cut. I find it funny that you’ll still have’ta pre-order the “People’s Edition” in order to get The Rock as a playable character. If you bought the “People’s Edition” on launch day, you’ll likely have’ta wait 90 days for his DLC to be available to purchase. We’ll see how THQ handles that situation. (Solution: Just pre-order the game, jabroni!) You can vote now!

This was a truly outstanding event for THQ, being that it showcased around 80% of the game’s roster and it did it in a sense of grandeur with how it was presented. I greatly appreciate THQ’s efforts at the Reveal and broadcasting it live online. I’m really hoping THQ plans more events like this with their future WWE titles. If y’all missed out on this and still want to see it, THQ saved the entire presentation via their Justin.tv page. Enjoy!

WWWYKI! (Thanks for the Axxess demo pic, Matt Black!

Source: GamingRing

[ALL STAR]

The WWE title looks fantastic, the old version was terrible it looked more like a kids toy belt, I'm not sure if it is just the camera angle but WWE title looks much bigger than the Heavyweight title.