2k15 Xbox One - My thoughts

[tekken57]

First off let me state that I've been a wrestling fan as long as I've been a gamer, so naturally the WWE games are the games I buy every year and spend the most time playing. I've purchased every single WWE game from WWF Superstars on the NES up to 2k15 on Xbox One and 360. With release of 2k15 on the Xbox One, I decide to make the jump and invest in a new console and purchase the game.

My feelings about the game are mixed. I think the reason why so many people have negativity towards the game is that the past games providing a wide variety of different modes which appealed to different gamers. Even though this is a brand new game, people's expectations are already quite high.

I will break down my thoughts on the different areas of the game.

1. 2k Showcase
After the awesome 30 years of wrestle mania mode, I didn't have high expectations for the 2k showcase mode. However upon playing the mode, I was pleasantly surprised. For the first time in a number of years the game play felt fresh. AI wasn't as predictable as before and there were instances where I actually  lost matches whereas in the past games, the AI hadn't changed much, was predictable and didn't present much of a challenge.

The HBK / HHH showcase was very enjoyable for me as I took me back to a time when wrestling was very entertaining. As with last years game the attires of the wrestlers are accurate for that era. The graphics on certain models look amazingly good but the animations on others make the mouth area look weird to me.

There some issues with the collision detection and some weird physic errors but overall the gameplay was good. I was concerned that the slower pace of the game would ruin the mode however it actually makes the matches feel more impactful and the moves seem more realistic. The chain grapples are awesome and really simulate the feel of the beginning of a wrestling match.


2. My career mode

This mode was a nice inclusion to the game however in my opinion it lacks the same level of polish as the 2k showcase mode. It did provide some level of entertainment but there were too many repetitive "jobber" matches. The mode also did really provide much interaction until I decided to make my caw turn "heel".

It was nice to see Hugh Morris in a WWE game though and it would have been awesome if he was an unlockable character. Maybe next year.


3. Creation modes

This is where the game really falls apart for me. The caw mode has been a staple of wrestling games since ps1 days. The caw mode is especially horrendous, there are so many bugs in the mode that I don't know how it passed Quality Assurance (QA). The logo import feature is a nice touch however there is a massive bug in the feature in that the imported logo's change colour and move if you add any new items to your caw after adding your custom logo's.

Even editing an existing in game design causes the logo's to change colour and move. The result is that you end up redoing work on the caw to compensate. I had to make my textures 5 shades lighter to compensate for the logo's becoming darker on editing the caw. I also had to position the logo's incorrectly to compensate for the logo's moving. The in game deigns also have bugs as white borders are visible on the standard designs no matter what colour you make them.

The entire caw mode as well is very slow. It takes ages to apply/ remove any clothing or make edits to any of the caw layers. You also cannot individually morph body parts and facial features to the same level of customisation as previous games.

I created one caw to used in the my career mode, but the caw mode is so frustration that I will not create any more caw's using it.

 

The ability to edit existing superstars has really been expanded is quite a nice feature. The lack of caw parts i.e pants, shirts, etc does damper it though. However there were some really accurate and detailed alternate attires on Xbox live for RVD, Booker T, etc. Not being able to add the superstar thread as an alt attire for the existing superstars is not cool though.

 

4. Summary

In summary, the game is an enjoyable single player experience. If you are someone who spends a lot of time creating custom content in the game, you will be disappointed.

I think the reason why so many people are so negative about the game is that 2k did not manage people's expectations well enough. The bar was set quite high with 2k14 and 2k15 does not quite measure up. Their reasoning about developing for a new console does not hold water as they could have delayed the release or hired additional developers for the next gen version.

I will probably spend my time playing with creation modes on the 360 version once I complete the single modes on the Xbox one. Hopefully next years game will be better.  
 

[mrelectriccity]

to me only good thing the new gen version has is looks and reanimated moves, but the way the game play is set up ruins the hole thing like a slight delay on a bunch of grapple moves sometimes doesn't even do anything at all until its to late. Not to mention can't change any match setting rules, Live sucks can't pick your player, sure u can set up ya top 5 guys to choose from but half of the time they dont even let u wrestle with any of them. And yeah CAW mode sucks even with logo importer the way they have it set up is so freakin terrible and end up showing up real faint, or one side gets distorted and blurry. Plus the options they give u is extremely limited. The one thing i do like is ability to add logos and resize logos on any objects like Glasses for ex u can't do that on the old gen. heres couple cool glasses i have made 

 

& helmet designs 

 

 

But yeah the neg heavily out weigh the positives, u much better off getting the old gen version & purchasing KG tool for those retail 360 users because it will make the game 10X better i know it did for 2k14.

Edited November 30, 2014 by mrelectriccity

[BHANGRA MAN]

Tekken dont give up on caws man..if you add a facial hair and remove it resets the texture it shows you the true color of the texture and keeps the texture in one place you just need to have the texture one click more before adding/ removing facial hair. You might have to edit the texture again but that is another matter but I can see what you mean about the frustations but I guess it depends. Others had initial frustatiosn with the glitches and now slowly finding a way

[the King Lives]

Tekken dont give up on caws man..if you add a facial hair and remove it resets the texture it shows you the true color of the texture and keeps the texture in one place you just need to have the texture one click more before adding/ removing facial hair. You might have to edit the texture again but that is another matter but I can see what you mean about the frustations but I guess it depends. Others had initial frustatiosn with the glitches and now slowly finding a way

yeah i'm hoping someone finds a work around like smacktalks found the work around the CAA Logo glitch last year. Or Heaven forbid, they actually PATCH THE DAMN THING! LOL I take it for what it is though, we got a demo a preview of things to come in 2k16 LOL First year features always are shotty at best LOL

[tekken57]

@bhangra_man, it's not only the texture that gets messed up it's also any designs you apply to the face/neck area. Any edits reset the colour on all these layers. I have about 11 layers on the face alone and it's very time consuming to redo all the designs over and over again. 

[the King Lives]

@bhangra_man, it's not only the texture that gets messed up it's also any designs you apply to the face/neck area. Any edits reset the colour on all these layers. I have about 11 layers on the face alone and it's very time consuming to redo all the designs over and over again. 

yeah not to mention even on shirts etc if you add a logo then go to change color you only see the shirt, the logo disappears. I'm really starting to think that 2k did not see any of this through before implementing this feature. SMH

[mrelectriccity]

 

@bhangra_man, it's not only the texture that gets messed up it's also any designs you apply to the face/neck area. Any edits reset the colour on all these layers. I have about 11 layers on the face alone and it's very time consuming to redo all the designs over and over again. 

yeah not to mention even on shirts etc if you add a logo then go to change color you only see the shirt, the logo disappears. I'm really starting to think that 2k did not see any of this through before implementing this feature. SMH

 

Yeah or u go to edit the logo u've done applied and instead of moving the original just makes just makes another copy and the original logo is still in the same spot, but there isn't a logo icon to delete still only shows 1 even though there's 2 on the CAW. But yeah they took a good idea with the logo importer and just completely fumbled the ball in how they went about doing it, from the way CAW suite is set up to the CC section only able to upload 5 logos without having delete the previous ones and can only upload 5 superstars until u get over a thousand downloads. When it would've been much easier and better if they left everything the way it was and on CC added an extra option where u can import ya logos, and in CAW suite left everything the same as old gen but add the new feats like real attires and being able to add logos to glasses & head accessories. And that would've been perfect. 

[the King Lives]

 

 

@bhangra_man, it's not only the texture that gets messed up it's also any designs you apply to the face/neck area. Any edits reset the colour on all these layers. I have about 11 layers on the face alone and it's very time consuming to redo all the designs over and over again. 

yeah not to mention even on shirts etc if you add a logo then go to change color you only see the shirt, the logo disappears. I'm really starting to think that 2k did not see any of this through before implementing this feature. SMH

 

Yeah or u go to edit the logo u've done applied and instead of moving the original just makes just makes another copy and the original logo is still in the same spot, but there isn't a logo icon to delete still only shows 1 even though there's 2 on the CAW. But yeah they took a good idea with the logo importer and just completely fumbled the ball in how they went about doing it, from the way CAW suite is set up to the CC section only able to upload 5 logos without having delete the previous ones and can only upload 5 superstars until u get over a thousand downloads. When it would've been much easier and better if they left everything the way it was and on CC added an extra option where u can import ya logos, and in CAW suite left everything the same as old gen but add the new feats like real attires and being able to add logos to glasses & head accessories. And that would've been perfect. 

 

as i've told many of my friends online and in person, i think that

"Day 1 Patch" did more harm than good.