March 3, 2025 • 67 mins
This week on The Game Marks Podcast we are playing WWE 2K24! It’s finally time to put a bow on this game as we prepare for 2K25!
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Join George Feis & Johnny Clash each week as they do a #DeepDive into the good, the bad & the awesome of wrestling video games. Do your favorite games stand the test of time or are you playing them with nostalgia goggles? New episodes every Monday!
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Tony Chimmel and I'd like to introduce the
hosts of the game Marks Podcast, George Feast and Johnny Clash.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome to the game Marks Podcast. We're each and every
week we take a deep dive into the good, the bad,
and the awesome of all things video games. I'm the
man they call Johnny Clash and.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
I am George Feast, and today we are playing ww
E two K twenty four. Guys, That's crazy. I can't
believe enough time has passed for this game. Is vifeful
to be on the podcast. It is finally time to
put a bow on this game as we gear up
for twenty five.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
That's Crazy and please subscribe and leave a five star
review for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, in Spotify, and
follow us on all forms of social media at game
mark spot and don't forget. You can get this episode
early ad free Patreon, dot Com, slash pot Exchange, along
with the show notes, discord access, live recordings like this
one right now, giveaways and more from us and our
(01:24):
good friend Dylan Postle.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Absolutely up coming up soon, maybe in the next couple
of weeks. We got a Patreon Muppets trivia that we
got to get through jobs.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I'm scared of that.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
He's scared. I'm not looking forward to it, Dylan keeps asking.
I know that he's been busy. You've been busy. We've
all got things going on. So that is coming up
soon for sure. But let's do a little bit of
follow up from the last episode. We played one of
the first wrestling arcade games at poor Not really sure
(02:02):
how to pronounce that. Still, yeah, it could be just
at pooh, But how are you feeling? We both gave
it a future endeavored, not from a gameplay aspect, just
from a replayability. Not really enough meat on the bone.
How are you feeling?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Just not the
fact that it was a bad game. I think it
was ahead of its time, like I said in my review,
and it overall played pretty good and looked good and
felt good. It was just not something that had enough
meat to go back and you know, put some more
time into It's the same thing over and over again
and with no real roster. I know there were parodies,
(02:47):
but there was just nothing to like look forward to
in the game. But overall, decent game. I'll keep it,
keep it in the old way Back Machine.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, it was an enjoyable experiences to say that we
got to go back and play one of the more
one of the earlier wrestling games that were ever released.
But we're going from one of the earliest to one
of the most recent. Ah Man, we got to talk
about all things WW two K twenty five before we
(03:20):
get into this week's game, which is two K twenty four.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It's out in eight days as we're recording this, which
is crazy because it's snuck up on us. It really
did I have here the Showcase match list? I'm not
that into it. I thought the Bloodline Showcase would be
the career of the Bloodline, but it's the whole Bloodline dynasty,
(03:49):
and you have the option to relive matches, change them,
or create them. So I mean, you start off with
Yokozuna and Hulk Hogan. That's kind of like what, I
don't want that? And then you go to Raw where
Rocky my Villa versus Hunter Hurst Hemsley. Then you get
Naya Jacks vers Layaval Korea for the Queen of the Ring.
(04:10):
Then you get Jimmy and Jay versus The The New
Day Great Matches. Why does that belong in the bloodline dynasty.
I don't know. I guess it's just all about the bloodline.
Like then they're just.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
To celebrate the it's it's more about.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So even Naomi's included in this. It's the dynasty.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I think he's the word that they've been using. It's
like it's about the bloodline and the Samoan dynasty.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
You get obviously Roman and Cody because you got last
year's and last year's game. But it's just this is
odd to me. Roman and Seth, Roman, Cody, Rosie and
Jamal versus a Com and Rezar who are not even
employed by the w W anymore. The AOP.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I think, I think you're getting fantasy matches here, but
that you're gonna.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Whose fantasy is that? Two mid card tag teams? Like
oh wow? And then you got the Islanders Tama and
Haku against montes Ford and Angelo Dawkins, Sika and Afa
versus the Dudley Boys, Like what what is this crap?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Yeah, it's create Okay, I see how they listed it out,
so it's okay. Yeah, I was trying to follow along
as you were reading through this, but it's yeah, they're
broken up into three different categories. I thought with any match,
you had the option to relive, change, or create. So
it's broken up into three different showcases. It's relive history,
(05:42):
where you can follow the path of Superstars and just
relive those matches. There's Change History, which is you can
change the losses into victories. And then there's the matches
that job we're just talking about, which is create, which
is a dream matches across generations. Okay, so now in
(06:03):
that context it makes a little bit more sense. I
thought everything was that option where every match you had
the option to change it, edit it, like you could
go into the showcase might be like, yeah, Roman Reigns
vers seth Ronlands was great, but what if it was
Roman Reigns for someone else.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, I don't know. I'm still gonna probably go through
all of them. I'll put them all up on YouTube
as I did last year. But this is just not
looking too great. The only good part is you're not
getting those stupid cut scenes in the middle anymore. That
ruin every single streaming algorithm there is. You're gonna just
play the match through now, so that is probably gonna
(06:41):
be a lot more fun. And uh yeah, I mean, like, no,
Mercy two thousand, your Kishi ver Stone hold in the
no holds Barred match eh Umaga Johnson in a New
Year's Revolution World Championship. That was cool, that was a
great match. Should be in there, But I would have
(07:01):
liked to see I guess the past, like what three
or four years, maybe even goes past that I think
goes into the pandemic, the past five years, six years
documented as like a timeline.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
That's I think that's what a lot of people thought
that this was gonna be.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Like this is when Roman came back, this is when
he won the Universal title, this is when he won
that title. This is his whole path of destruction leading
to his downfall, leading to solo, leading to them at Wargames,
him losing to Code he done.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, I think I think a lot of people thought
that that's what it was going to be, especially you know,
with with other members of the of the family, of
their family thrown in with other types of matchups. But well,
I have to see. I wonder what interesting treatments they're
gonna give this because I always feel they have some
(07:54):
kind of curveball that you know, you may not expect.
There's always something that they don't necessarily list out that
you only experience once you're in the middle of playing
the games, and I feel, you know, you're as you're
going through the Showcase mode. So I'm kind of excited
to see what that aspect is going to be. But
it's definitely a different showcase than what we've seen in
(08:15):
the past, that's for sure. But they've kind of done
that the last couple of years. There was every John
Sena loss, there was the split showcase that they had.
It's this is just like a next version of that.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, well, the next news here we got my Riz Mode.
They're now going to include live events, which are optional
matches that you could unlock different superstars, My Faction cards
and original Myriz characters like Cole Quinn, who's going to
be unlockable, and Demon Finn Balor is also an unlockable
in that mode. So I guess that's their answer to
(08:53):
everyone complaining about My Faction cards and the players unlocked
only being available in My Faction. Now you could unlock
them a different way in Myriz Mode. Also, in my
Rise mode, you're gonna have different endings per I don't
know if they're splitting it up again in a male
and female story. I would assume they are. The personality
type you choose affects the way your character acts and
(09:15):
response to the world around them, but it affects what
stories you have available to you as well and the endings. Okay,
so that's kind of cool. We saw DDP here at
a indie arena in his tristratus, also in their current attire,
so that's cool. I guess they're gonna be like indie events,
(09:37):
which they've stuff here.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
They've kind of had stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah, it shows the Merge Table Grapple Legends arena. There's
a screenshot here Riha Ripley from Myra's Mode holding three championships,
all the women's titles. That's kind of cool. I guess
that is something to do with the storyline.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
About DLC so far. So there's the pre ordered DLC,
which is the y At six. Then there's the uh
the pre order or the the dead Man Edition pack
which you get Brother Love, Undertaker nineteen ninety and the
Undertaker Elite figure, which I don't know. Have have you
(10:18):
ever played matches with the figure styles?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Not even once.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
I it's a cool uh, it's a cool feature to
see like live action figures in the video game. I
just wonder if there's I don't know, I guess there's.
There's a there's a market for for everything. I just
would be curious of, like is it, like, are enough
people using these that it's it's worth it. It's a
(10:43):
cool looking.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I guess I guess they are.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
It's a cool looking for sure. Yeah. It's an awesome
like shake up to the graphic style for sure, like
every like the action figures look exactly like their action figures.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I think it's awesome that everyone complained about Jay Usso
being exactly the same as last year, and they went
in and they put a brand new entrance in for him.
Coming down from the crowd. The crowd's yeating with him,
and it looks really cool. I mean, the crowd is
a little well, you know, it's the crowd. They're all
kind of stiff and bending weird, but you get what
you get. I think it was a cool addition. Then
(11:20):
the shows they're listening, so that's always a good thing.
There's a nineteen minute video out with some my Rise footage,
so if you want to check that out. I think
that is on the Let's say, where is this.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Well John was set up? There's also for the Bloodlined
Edition pack, you get the jay Usso Elite, the Roman
Reigns Elite, and the Rock Nation of Domination.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Ooh, it's on the ig N YouTube account, so you
could check that out there. We also got a new
menu screen which is going back to let's see which
one was that two K nineteen?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, which is the one with Adre.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I think it's like the style of the one with
Adre that's nineteen. Yeah, it's going back to like the
nineteen menu. Yeah, the uh not the main menu the
is it? No? Because nineteen had that cool like black
and white one, so I think it might have been eighteen.
(12:23):
I don't know. I don't know. It's one of those.
Don't if you're out there and you know what I'm
talking about, hit me up. But it looks pretty cool.
It's cleaner, nice image of a wrestler, and then the
box is under it. What more do you want? I
thought the past few years were cool also, but it
was time for change after using it three years in
a row, and I am looking forward to this game.
I have my pre order set for Steam this time.
(12:46):
I don't need the Island. I'm gonna get Fomo for sure.
I know, and if it ever goes on Xbox Game Pass,
I'll probably end up downloading it on both, so.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Well, you can be sure to know, you could be
sure that John and I will absolutely be putting the
time in to play through this game thoroughly, as we've
done for the last couple of years with all of
these games. But did we want to talk. I mean
we touched on it briefly last time. The graphics, the textures,
(13:21):
the models for all the characters are just when you
think that it can't get better, they improve the lighting,
the textures, the physics of clothing and of hair, and
everything just looks cleaner in a way that you didn't
think that could even be possible. This looks, this looks
(13:43):
really really good.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I'm afraid that we're going to get the PC version
or the Xbox version and it's not going to be
as nice as the Series X and the PS five version.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
It's possible.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
It's going to be a minor difference. But these videos
that they're showing are obviously in the highest quality possible. Yeah,
and I want that quality. But either way, it's always
it's always nice to look at, so it'll be fine.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I think we're all
excited to play this in as of recording a couple
of days. So without any further Ado, John, we got
to get excited for two K twenty five by closing
the door on two K twenty four. What do you
say You're ready to get into it.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Let's do it. Let's finish the story. Looking to add
the newest wrestling figures to your lineup, there's no better
spot to pick up your next figure than the Wrestling
Collector Shop.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Started by collectors for collectors around the globe, Wrestling Collector
Shop has been serving the our fans the latest and
greatest in wrestling action figure since two thousand and two.
So the next time you're looking for the newest wrestling
collectible to add to your collection mixture, your Wrestling Collectorshop
dot com and use code game marks to save yourself
(15:15):
ten percent on your order.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
That's ten percent off your order with code game marks
at Wrestling Collectorshop dot com.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
All right, the deep dive brought to you by our
friends over at Wrestling Collector Shop. You just heard the ad.
Make sure go over to Wrestling Collectorshop dot com and
use code game marks to save yourself ten percent on
your order and courtesy of our friends at Wrestling Collector Shop,
we are giving away a figure John. What are we
(15:52):
giving away and what do the people have to do
to win?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Taking a selfie so I could post it on social media?
There it is. You can get this very This is
one of my favorite figures I've I have a story
about this figure, but it is a Royal Rumble Elite
Hurricane figure. So you better stand back. And all you
have to do to enter is leave us a review
(16:15):
on Apple or Spotify. Screenshot that review and send it
to us on any form of social media at game
Mark spot and you will be eligible to win, and
we will announce the next episode who the winner is.
And let me tell you my story here. The last
ever figure that I purchased as a kid that was
(16:37):
going into my fig fed was this Jack specific Hurricane.
It was impossible to find toys, r US didn't have it,
KB didn't have it. My mom finally found like a
hobby shop in Farmingdale on Main Street. Don't know what
it was, don't know the name of it. Never been
there before, never we'll go there again. It probably doesn't
(16:59):
even exist anymore. And they had it and we paid
like double price for it, but I literally took it
out of the package said, holy crap, this is the
greatest figure I've ever owned in my life. It's got
the soft goods cape and everything, the painted on face paint.
I put it in the bin and I never played
with it because I was too old. And that was
the last one.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Oh well, we've come full circle now.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Shortly after that, my aunt, for like my birthday or
something bought me a Ruthless Aggression RVD and that sat
in the box in the bin for like five years
before I soald it. So geez, anyway, you could win
this Hurricane. Do what I just said, leave us review,
send it to us hell.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yes, all right, here we go. WWE two K twenty
four released March eighth, twenty twenty four, March fifth, if
you had early access, is available on PC, PlayStation five,
Xbox series S, Xbox one, and the PS four, developed
by Visual Concept, published by two K Sports, and other
(18:06):
wrestling games in twenty and twenty four. You've got AW
Rise to the Top and AEW Figure Fighters.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Wow. Tough competition here, yeah, but let's play either of
those games. Currently.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I have actually loaded up Rise to the Top for
the first time. Why I think I was going to
say that we should cover it, and I wanted to
see if anything had changed since the last time that
we played, because if that's for those of you who
are joining us for the first time or I don't know,
(18:44):
the last time that we mentioned this. The rule that
we have on the podcast is that a game comes out,
we don't play it immediately on release. We give the
game a year so that they can work through patches
and fixed bugs and things like that and new content
for games that do that, and then we address it
a year after. That's why we're doing two K twenty
(19:05):
four today because it is now viable. All of the DLC,
all the patches are, you know, to my knowledge. To
my knowledge, there's no major game breaking bugs that need
to be patched. It's probably just like small little quality
of life updates that will happen until they eventually sunset
it eight months to a year from now. That being said,
(19:27):
Figure Fighters and Rise to the Top, I did want
to see where they fell in all of that. So yeah,
I did load up Rise to the Top to see
if it was a potential option to cover. And it
will be soon, all right, But WWE two K twenty
four currently as of recording because it hasn't been released yet,
(19:49):
is the most current version of WWE two K. This
iteration of the game celebrates forty years of WrestleMania and
has a roster of over three hundred and thirty superstars
and legends.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Man, so we will not be reading the roster this week.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Yeah, that's that's a lot. And uh, of course with
Cody as the cover artist or the cover artist, the Curve,
the cover superstar for this uh game, you have the
tagline of finish your story.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
There was also something crazy around this time. We're going
to get into the different versions of the game, but
it came out what a month after, month before or
a month before WrestleMania, but you were guaranteed if you
bought a certain edition to get the WrestleMania Arena, right
the forty years of WrestleMania edition. It was something weird
like that, like they would put it in.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
As a special edition that came out. Yeah, that had
specific unlocks like like they usually do. But yeah, I
do remember something about the arena itself.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, we've played a lot of this game. If you
know us, head on over to our YouTube game Markspod
and check out GMP twenty four. It's our universe mode
that we've been playing all year long. George drafted a team.
I drafted a team. We go head to head each week.
We got storylines, we got plots, we got pay per
view events, and it's a whole lot of fun. And
we're closing in on the end of that season as
(21:16):
we make our way over to two K twenty five.
So go check that out. Let us know what you
think if you want more in depth gameplay of twenty four.
So we have a lot of fun doing it. So
we've put a lot of time into this game. We
know the mechanics, we know how it works.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
We finally figured out cut scenes eight finally to making
the show.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Finally figured out how to do that. So that's cool.
Thanks to some video dding skills and just us being technical.
I won't even say geniuses, because we know what happens
when we get in charge of the wheel.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Let's talk about where technical geniuses it would have taken
us eight months to figure Yeah, let's.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Talk about the gameplay improvements from two K twenty three.
Backstage Brawl now supports up to four players and has
more weapons and interactions around the arena. Double title matches
are now allowed, so you could do two championships at once.
That you know, Roman reigns holding up two titles. It
goes hand in hand with the title and all that
improved hit detection and AI that strikes, grapples, en counters
(22:13):
feel more responsive and polished, which is the first thing
I noticed loading into this game. The first match I
had was an ambulance match. It was aj Styles I
think against Kofi Kingston because I picked two randoms and yeah,
and it just felt I loved twenty three. It felt
so much smoother and just crisp, and I was like,
(22:36):
oh wow, this feels good. And another thing they added
was the camera flashes in the crowd. Yeah, a big
move happens, and it's not that overbearing that it's annoying,
but it's there and I think it's kind of cool.
It gets you up there, and it's not like one
(22:57):
of the older games had that but only for a finisher,
but not if it was reversed. This does it for both,
so it kind of makes it like a little realistic
where the camera flash, Oh you didn't hit it, It.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Kind of cool, didn't Day of Reckoning or one of
the GameCube games have you know they had. They always
had those camera cuts that were like, you know, you
would get like the super slow mo cam, or you
would get like the really hate those. But then there
would also be like insane amounts of flash photography that
(23:28):
would be happening during that. And I while those were fun,
use that in quotes because you just said you didn't
like it. But while some people may have enjoyed that
more back in the day, I feel like if you
tried to do something like that now, it would just well, one,
(23:48):
that's not really the style of the WWE wrestling games anymore.
It's they try to go a little bit more grounded
and realistic with the presentation. But man, they I'm like
you said, I'm really glad they stopped doing the crazy
amounts of photography and the unbelievably bright colors, the unbelievably
(24:10):
bright flashes that would just absolutely like wash out the screen.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
The crazy thing is that's how wrestling used to be,
you know what. It would be absolutely insane but amazing.
If WWE put a section on their website and said,
if you have ever taken a photo at our show,
upload it by date, and they just had a huge
database of everyone's live photos, like almost like they're a
(24:39):
new social media of WWE photos from events from history.
That's such like a large undertaking that will never happen,
But how cool would that be? You just literally go
to a date, you could say, Okay, January eleventh, nineteen
ninety nine, N'saw Coliseum. Oh, Johnny Clash posted pictures, you know,
just like a social media of wrestling pictures.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah. I think that that's a cool that's a really
cool idea.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I got ideas they do.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
This thing now at certain certain events where I think
it started at baseball games or maybe it was at
at football games. I don't know. It was with some
big arena things where there's a camera that like is
on a track that goes around the arena and takes
a photo of the entire area, and then you can
(25:31):
go up, like you know, you can go on the
website and find yourself like in the seat that you
were in, like throughout the course of the night, reacting
to the show.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I was in one of those for an Islanders playoff game.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Okay, maybe maybe that's where I heard about it from.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Maybe you could really zoom in on them.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah, maybe you told me about that. Maybe that's where
maybe that's where I heard that.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Maybe we digress. Uh, the stamina and damage system has
been tweaked this year, and you could see that firsthand
if you go to our playthrough of our last met
last Man's Standing match, because last year's game two K
twenty three when we covered it, I think one of
the times we played two K twenty three, we had
a last man's Standing match that lasted probably forty five minutes.
(26:17):
It just kept going on and on endless. You get
the meter every time you get stamina dream then you're
back up. It's just constant up and down. These are
more realistic. They're realistic in the way that like longer fights,
less happens. You're not getting up and just boom boom
(26:39):
boom boom. You're tired. For example, the last Man's Standing match,
your meter doesn't even start sometimes till seven eight or
nine because you just got hit with a million finishers,
so you're not gonna get that chance to do dun
hit the thing in the middle and get up immediately.
Love that.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yeah, it was really really it's again it's one of
those things that they just improve on the mechanics to
make it a little bit more realistic, a little bit
more authentic in the presentation of a.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Little bit Oh sorry, yeah, yeah that could be. Let's
talk about the game modes here, because there are some
new match types. Special Guest Referee has returned. Yes, finally,
is it perfect? Absolutely not. I've literally done it once
(27:30):
and I was Chelsea Green and I was like, this
is the hardest thing I've ever had to do, because.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
I think you're going in with the thought of it
being like no Mercy, where it's just like button it's
one button and you have free reign to do anything,
and this game hits you with the old stone cold
and says, eh, there are rules, and there are there
are limitations to how far you can go, and if
you do too much and you push the bounties, it's
a special Guests Special Guests rep. You get kicked out
(27:57):
and then you're not the rep anymore.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I think that's exactly what happened to me. I was like, wait, wait, what, what,
why do we need rules in a video game? I
don't know. You could actually use an AI for that,
or you could control it yourself. Yep, And it's only
in one on one matches. So let's see if that
is changed this year.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Maybe they had a little bit more this year, that'd
be cool.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I think there's a woman ref in two K twenty
four and you can't hit her as the ref. So
maybe this year, now that inter gender matches are in there,
you could have a little more freedom with special guest referee. Also,
I think it.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Also depends on the match type and like the stipulations
of the match too, like if you yeah, maybe like
maybe it was maybe because you were trying to beat
up the ref in the last man standing match that
you can't target the ref because they need to make
the count and that part of that match is such
(28:58):
a long process to count to ten. Maybe I don't know,
I'm trying to just assign some kind of lot or
because yeah, maybe maybe it's just you can't target certain reps.
Maybe maybe it's because the match types. Who knows, Maybe
that's it.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
On the ambulance match is a lot of fun. The
ambulance is at ringside. You have to get the person
in there, but once they're in there, you have to
close the door and that's where the little minigame starts.
And it's not a ning.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Match that can go on for a really long time
because of that. But the ambulance itself fully interactive. You
can throw opponents into it, you can do moves on
the top of it, off of it. It's it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It's cool, it's interactive and it's a lot of fun.
Same with the casket match. It's pretty much the same dynamics.
You get them in the casket, you gotta close the lid,
but they're no, they're trying to get out of it.
And it's got a cool little minigame and it's a
fun mode that should have been in there. And now
if we could just get buried alive matches back, we'll
(29:56):
be all set and some inferno and that's pretty much everything,
right Punjabi prison. Maybe I don't know if do we
need that.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
I don't know if that works in a too many layers,
it's too many layers, and there's it's too complicated of
a match to if they were gonna do it now,
I feel like might be the time to do it,
because there's so much like like they've kind of done
so much that at a certain point maybe you try
to do it. But I don't necessarily know if people
(30:24):
are no they're not clamoring for it.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Gauntlet matches have also been at it. Now you have
your play and your exhibition I'm sorry, Excel bitchin on
your menu, and then you have my Faction, which is
where you collect and upgrade Superstars as trading cards. We
all know about that. I was thinking, this is the
year maybe I I dabble and see if I like it.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
So I've done. I genuinely think that it's something that
you would enjoy because it it kind of takes you
out of the like play through showcase, do your your rise,
and then once you're through at that and you're like,
well now the only thing that I'm going to go
(31:05):
in there and do is like I'll do a rumble
or I'll just hit random and play some matches. I
think that's the point that you would you should go
and do my Factor because it's it kind of like
once you're past making your your team and all that stuff,
it's kind of just go through play matches. Is they're
like assigned, so it's not like you're and you're always
(31:26):
kind of doing something different. So I think I do
think that you would enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Well, we'll find out. I don't really enjoy the one
in NHL. So, and then you have your Universe mode,
which is you know, your sandbox. They have expanded storylines
this year, including more rivalry interactions and cutscenes, loser leave
town matches and retirement matches, and the ability to hold
multiple titles. I gotta guys, I'm sorry, I'm like so nasally.
I was in Disney last week and those little snot
(31:52):
nosed kids the second the day I got home from Disney,
it was like, oh, you're sick. So I don't know that.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
You sound fine to me. I'm sure you probably don't
feel great.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
I'm struggling tough, I get certain words on I'm like
lose and.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
But audio wise, you sound you sound good. I'm sorry
that you don't feel great, but.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
I sound like the nanny right now. Uh. You have
your Showcase mode, which celebrates forty years of WrestleMania, featuring
legendary matches. It goes all the way up to Cody
and Roman from last years, WrestleMania two years ago, I
mean not last year, and all of those are on
my personal YouTube at Johnny Clash in their entirety, so
you could go check out every single forty years of
(32:31):
WrestleMania Showcase match over there. I streamed them all and
I'm gonna do it again this year, despite not liking
what I'm seeing so far. Now you're my rise modes.
Undisputed was the men's and Unleashed was the women's. I
didn't do them. I started the women's, but I never
finished it. Now. I grinded to get the two K
twenty three ones done before twenty four came out, and
(32:53):
I put so much time, so much effort. Every night
I was sitting there trying to get it done just
in time for this game to come out. That went
it did come out. I loaded the Xbox, I made
the I made the same character, the same woman from
the last game to a t like I copied, I remembered.
I wrote down, like, Okay, this hairstyle, this this face,
blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Never did you had a full uh full create a
rest of the recipe like it was I did.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
I literally did. Who am I going to create as
a woman like one Eita Clash? I don't know, Jenny Clash,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
So I used to play through both of them. I
think you can do it.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
I think I still named her LJ just like that,
So I don't know, I, you know, tell my Xbox forever.
I could go back and play it, and there's a
chance that I do my GM mode. There are new features.
You can now have inner brand trading and scouting new talent.
There's more GM options like as your GM avatar, like
who you are, and expanded season lengths and new rivalries.
(33:57):
And we know the they're going to keep updating my
this year. There's even more stuff in there. So online play, right,
pretty cool? Online play something we could do something we sir, all.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Right, you take a break. I feel like you've.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Been water drop or something. I cough drop water, I
pack a lip. I'm packing a cough drop in my lip,
so I could just keep sucking it as I talk.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
I'm gonna go read through the match types. You want
to go make like yourself, a cup of tea or something.
Take a shot of money. You're good.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
They got cough drops.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Oh cool, it's your match types four WW two K
twenty four. You've got your normal extreme rules, backstage brawl, ladder, table,
hell in a cell, steel cage, TLC, ironman, false count anywhere, submission,
last man standing, no holds, barred elimination, Chamber Battle Royale,
(34:48):
a Gauntlet match from four to up to thirty Superstars,
A Gauntlet Eliminator from four to up to thirty Superstars,
Gauntlet Turmoil four to up to thirty Superstars, a ten
person Those Terrible ten Person Battle or ten Person Royal Rumble,
twenty Person Royal Rumble, thirty Person Royal Rumble, three v
(35:11):
three war games, four v four wargames, a handicapped match,
and tournaments which you could do a one v one tournament,
a tag team tournament, the Dusty Rhodes Classic, and the
Mixed Match Challenge. Who But the additions don't.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Stop one thing I want to see change that I
don't think we can, Okay. I want to be able
to use war games in any arena, and I don't
understand why they can't do a normal arena and put
the the shark cages whatever you want to call them,
on the stage.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Could it might be well, because it's isn't it like
behind the ring.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
In the in the game top like the NXT arena.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Yeah, Like you walk down the ramp, but the cages
aren't on the entrance ramp, or maybe they are, and
they turn the camera angle for the match. No, they're
like up top, they are up top, they're like up
in the like the stands. But yeah, I don't know that.
I'm curious to see what they're gonna do with war
Games this year. I do know that I'm not a fan.
(36:22):
I think it just ends too quick. Like, yeah, so
much damage has been done if you're playing, uh, you know,
with the unless you have a full you know, six
v or three v three or four before everyone has
a controller. By the time that the match actually begins,
so much damage has been done that once the match
(36:42):
officially starts, it's over within a couple of minutes. It's
not like it continues to go on. Uh. And that's
just in the couple of matches that I've tried. John
and I have done a couple as well, and uh, yeah,
maybe there is something in the settings that you can change,
but that's just from our experience. But yeah, I'm curious
to see what they do in two K twenty five
with four games, if they change anything. If they uh,
(37:05):
maybe that's one of those hidden little features that they'll
be like, oh yeah, by the way, we didn't announce this,
but war Games is in there, and we fixed it,
and it, you know, operates in the proper way and
you can pick any arena.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Yeah that might be cool. Not my favorite match type
like to watch and play. So yeah, let's talk about
the new weapons here that we could throw at each
other's face, because that is a new ability that you
could throw weapons again, just like No Mercy, and boy
do we take advantage of it?
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Is it just got his combo. You hit someone with
the weapon so they're knocked down, and then as soon
as they get up, you throw the weapon.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, it's great. You now have a trash can, a guitar,
a microphone, la chankla, which are flip flops, a slim gym,
barbed wire bat light, tube, door, megaphone, a football, and
an Apple, not an iPhone, just an Apple. Now, normally
this is where we would read the roster, but like
we said before this three yeah, we're not going to
(38:02):
do that. Everybody's in it. That's all you need to do.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Maybe maybe we throw in like an AI voice recording
here of everything, you know what.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
That's even too long and I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
That's a lot of names for everyone to listen to.
But all the heavy hitters are here. If you're familiar
with what the wrestling landscape has looked like for the
past couple of years, you got a fair fair chance
of naming a good portion of the roster. But yeah,
three hundred and thirty characters and the ability to download
creative wrestlers, and there's pre order bonuses and DLC. Man,
(38:34):
we got to talk about this pre order bonus and
the DLC. But before we do that, do you want
to take a quick break? Trump, Yes, I need some water,
all right. So we talked about the pre order bonuses
and what you can expect from that. So let's do that.
(38:57):
Let's break it down. The Standard Edition pre order bonus.
You get the Nightmare Family Pack, which was included in
all additions. You get the Undashing Cody Rhoads persona Superstar
Billy Graham, the American Dream Dusty Rhoads, you get the
Stardust character, and you get my Faction cards for Cody Roads,
Dusty Roads, and star Dust. Then if you had the
(39:21):
Deluxe Bonus addition, you have everything from the Standard Edition
plus access to the Season Pass, which grants access to
all of the five DLC packs, the my Rise Mega Boost,
which is boosted stats for your My Rise characters. And
then you have the Supercharger, which instantly unlocks all legends
(39:43):
and arenas in the game. Uh, I can't remember. Does
that also do title belts or do you have to
buy the title belts?
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Oh? I don't dabble in any of that, so I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
I think it might also be title belts, but I
might be wrong about that. But the Supercharger does unlock
a ton of content that you would have to either
buy from the store or play through the Showcase modes
to otherwise unlock. But it's all there legend wise, But
it doesn't unlock My Faction cards or certain Showcase stuff.
(40:18):
I know, sir. Maybe it doesn't log any Showcase stuff.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
No, I don't think it does.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
And then, of course, final the WrestleMania forty Year Edition,
you have everything from both previous packs plus the forty
Years of WrestleMania pack, which is Mania Moment, versions of
the Rock Triple H, Charlotte Flair and Randy Orton, WrestleMania arenas,
and additional My Faction content. And yes, I can confirm
(40:48):
that the Supercharger does not unlock anything from my Showcase.
It is just the general store content of legends and arenas.
And now it's time to talk about the five DLC packs.
So you have the e c W Punk Pack, which
is Cmpunk, the Dudley Boys, Sandman, and Terry Funk. You
(41:12):
have the Post Malone and Friends Pack, which christ includes
post Malone and other celebrity guest characters, which is Post Malone,
Hockey talk Man, Jimmy Hart, his Friends, Sensation, o' sherry
and the Headbangers. And then you have the Pat McAfee
(41:34):
Show Pack, which is all of the characters from the
Pat McAfee Show. You have the Global Superstar Pack, which
includes Jade Cargill in her debut into wrestling video games,
uh Michelle McCool, Dragon Lee, Carlito, uh Lyra, Valkyria, Kyrie Sane,
(41:57):
and Nia Jacks. And then finally, or no, not finally,
we've got more WCW pack brings in legends like DDP,
the Iron Cheek, Mister Perfect, the Great Muddha, and Lex Luger.
And then there is the Myrise Megaboost and the Supercharger,
which we talked about earlier. The uh Mega Myriz Megaboost
(42:18):
grants an additional two hundred attribute points to really give
your Myri's character a significant boost. Okay with that, John,
would you like to go and talk about the artwork.
There are multiple covers for this game. Are you ready
to dive in?
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (42:37):
For that very cool.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
We said before there's probably two my Rise most it's year.
There's actually only one. It's unified just so that there's
what only one my Rise this year? Oh for twenty five, Yeah,
it's gonna be unified. Before I said when reading them
that there was gonna be two again.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Okay, so for two K twenty five it is one
Myriz story interesting, interesting, interesting.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Sorry, just had to That's all good, It's all good.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
H So let's talk about this cover here, sticking with
the theme of the last couple of years, at least
from the uh from a text aspect, the two K
logo for WWE, these uh mostly the same. It's just
you know, now it runs the length of the the
case instead of it being across the top. But uh yeah,
(43:30):
multiple shots of Cody Rhodes, fireworks going off from the entrance.
It's multiple postes. Yeah, it's it's a really this is
I feel like we've said this the last couple of years.
These they're finally art again. Their art and they would
make really cool like they like, if you've removed the
two K twenty four logo and just had the WWE logo,
they could service posters.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah, that's like I would get that signed.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
Yeah, like, yeah, that's a great eight y ten. It's
a hell of a poster. It's awesome. I feel like
Rays was the first one that kind of brought that
back with like the super cool close up of the
mask and him, you know, mid jump, leap frog or
whatever he was doing on the cover of that. But yeah,
(44:18):
it's just it's these cool, multi layered action shots of
Cody on the basic one, on the standard edition, and
then on the Deluxe edition you've got Bianca bel Air
and Riho Ripley dual cover stars. It is. It's awesome.
(44:38):
It is follows its same style, kind of style as
the Cody cover, big headshots of Ria and Bianca in
the background, pyros in ring, mid match entrance pose shots
from both of them. It is. Uh, it's really really cool.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
I think that's my favorite cover. I like the colors.
I mean, as you can see behind me right now, I.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
Think that's the one that feels the most different.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Color presentation wise, and I like what they did how
on the standard edition with Cody, the color of the
two K reflects that, but then on the Deluxe edition
it's a little bit of like a magenta red and
a little bit of purple, and the two K section
is colored corded color chordated with that background. And then
(45:31):
on the forty Years of WrestleMania version, Man, that is
a cool, cool looking cover, very nostalgic, very tried in
true WrestleMania style font treatments.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
Of the It's almost like one of those Rob Schamburger
hal Haney design.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
Yes, yeah, that is. That is a great great analogy.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Maybe it would have been a Rob Shamburger if he
didn't if he's now Aw's guy, but it is.
Speaker 3 (46:05):
It's really cool. I think they did a really good
job with all three covers this year. They all, like
like we were saying before, could be signed eight x
tens posters collector's item regardless. They're very very cool looking,
very well designed. Yeah, and a lot of thought put
into it. But you know what else is really well designed?
(46:26):
John The game itself. It's really really like there's no
way around it. It's a really pretty game.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
Oh, there's actually a picture we have here of the
war Games where the cages are, so if you want
to check that.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Out, Oh there you go.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
I mean, yeah, what can you really say? It looks
like you're actually watching wrestling. You can't really critique it now,
Yeah you can nitpicksing like, oh, Solo's face doesn't look great,
but this year as it does. But you didn't think
that last year. You thought it was good too. You
out there making the complaint, but I won one gripe
(47:02):
and you notice this and showcase the most. When you're
in the big arena. For some reason, there's a wall
in your vision, so like it'll cut back and forth
between like say WrestleMania SummerSlam, and then it goes to
the real one. It doesn't show this, but then it
goes to the gameplay and it's like crowd wall, crowd.
(47:27):
I don't know why that wall is there in every
single arena.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
But it's never you definitely have it, but it's not.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
The TNA Impact Zone has it, but not you know,
like Lucas Oil Stadium or whatever.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
I don't know, but I said it during our playthrough
before the crowd. I don't think i've ever really like
the crowd has looked really good for the last couple
of years, But I don't think that, you know, we've
kind of always just like glossed over it, like it's
the very sim of the crowd. You know, We've come
miles from the paper PNG gift style crowd of them
(48:04):
just going back and forth with like one or two animations,
Like there's a lot of depth, there's a lot of
different shirts. The overall presentation of the crowd itself close
up to the guard rail and when you would go
out into the crowd to fight outside the ring, over
the apron is over the barricade, is very realistic. But
(48:30):
I don't think I've ever appreciated beyond that, which is
pretty much what John's talking about now. Everything beyond the
close immediate crowd. There's movement. The camera flashes that we
were talking about earlier all happens back there as well.
It just it really helps with the immersion the presentation,
(48:52):
Like it just helps with the realism of this game,
which the last couple of years, I feel like they've
really nailed that aspect of it. And yeah, sometimes the
face models may be off, the character models themselves may
be slightly off I think over the course of the
last couple of years, there's always some like weird hair
(49:14):
thing that happens, but those things are kind of hard
to capture, like you gotta. I don't know. Hair has
never been something that has ever really bothered me in
a game for how the hair flows. I rather other
aspects of the game work, you know, yeah, like they're
(49:36):
supposed to. But I get it, I understand. You know.
Everything else looks great, and there's that one uncanny valley
kind of moment that takes you out of the realistic presentation.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
I feel you. I feel were you there. I don't
know if you were there. I was streaming twenty four
once and I, oh, it was a razor and Sean
WrestleMania ten.
Speaker 3 (49:57):
Oh. Yeah, I know exactly what you're trying to say.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
And I don't remember what the move was, but I
hit a move, and I like, did this weird glitch
over the barricade. Suddenly I was in the crowd, but
not where you should be, so I couldn't get back
into the ring. I could run anywhere I wanted in
the arena, I couldn't interact with anything. Though Sean wasn't
(50:22):
he might have been in the crowd with me, but
I couldn't get back over the barricade. I had to
restart the match, and I was like halfway through getting
all the accomplishments. But that was probably the craziest glitch
I've encountered. But at the same time, I was like,
it is possible to fight in the crowd and it
doesn't look too bad just running over people.
Speaker 3 (50:42):
Yeah, I know, I I agree. There are, like we said,
those very few moments that take you out of it.
I found it. So you Irish whip Sean as Razor
into the barricade, he reverses it, and then you both
glitch over. It's almost like the collision detection.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Was really because I was trying to get him out.
Speaker 3 (51:03):
Yeah, you both like rubber band over the barricade into
the crowd. And typically what happens when you go over
certain parts of the barricade to battle into the crowd,
like the crowd will move where there'll be like a
very clear path that you can go into the section
that you're supposed to fight out.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
They just look at you like, huh.
Speaker 3 (51:20):
You're just they're still looking at the crowd at the ring.
You're just now in there and what was the end
result that you could get back in start.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, that's so stupid, And some of that stuff took
forever to get to for the showcase.
Speaker 3 (51:35):
Yeah, but those those moments seem to be fewer and
far between nowadays.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
That's what I hope. I mean. Our friend the Beefy
Bagel boy Will in our discord has been sending his
own glitches. So what was his last one? I was
playing a match in two K Universe AJ and Luke
Gallows versus Jerry Lawler and some dude from the Pat
McAfee show out of Michael Cole, oh, out of know where.
Michael cold says, I haven't heard a crowd this fired
(52:01):
up since the Milan Miracle in two thousand and seven.
And that was it. Next match, the referee never showed up.
The match will never end. I had to quit, got
hit with a finisher and pinned. The kickout meter won't
start until after the one count after a finisher, and
he just had to quit the game. I do remember
hearing him mention that that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (52:19):
Yeah, that is wild.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
But he also mentioned did you know did you know
Rock Lesner remains in the two K Showcase? That was
not playable in the actual game.
Speaker 3 (52:35):
Did you know Cody Rhodes is the only superstar with
four different character robins in this game?
Speaker 2 (52:42):
Did you know two K twenty four was offered as
a free game for PS Plus subscribers in October of
twenty twenty four, but it's still available for full price
on Steam and your console stores. Jeez, speaking of stores,
I'm over here on my other screen our friend Shannon
Williams mark out digital card game.
Speaker 3 (53:01):
I saw this.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
He's developing a new game right now on Twitch. He's
doing it live retro game store simulator coming to Steam.
Speaker 3 (53:11):
He he repurposed the the existing Twitter, the existing Twitter
for the card game, and now has switched it over
to that.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
Damn. I love to see. Gakta is still also just
working on his his game.
Speaker 3 (53:32):
A lot of a lot of games coming out, still
a lot of a lot of cool potential games on
the horizon, a lot of interesting looking artwork, a lot
of interesting looking partnerships and deals being made. It's a
like we say it at least once a month, it's
a good time to be a wrestling video game player.
(53:53):
There's a lot of things that are coming out. There's
a lot of different options to go with.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
Yeah, even retro store simulator. I'm in to this.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
This looks super cool, super cool concept for sure. But hey, John,
what do you say we get into a little bit
of R and R some ratings and reviews.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
You know, as we get older, as the games progress,
as we get more recent, there's less reviews and I
like it Now. Metacritic, the Xbox xn S has an
eighty three out of one hundred. PS five with an
eighty one, and the PC with a seventy eight, we
could agree, Well, there's been some glitches we've encountered with
PC version, like losing hair. Hair not loading on created risk.
Speaker 3 (54:37):
So that's that is them patching out the hair glitch
that people were doing and that was the result. So
if you if someone uploaded to create a wrestler that
they utilized the hair glitch on, I believe two K
patched out the hair glitch so that when you use
the wrestler that still has the hair glitch, they end
up having no hair or in certain case, Kash, would
(55:02):
you like to say that they look like sometimes they
got the Tyson kid. The Tyson Kid, that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (55:09):
I was like, that's what we should have a hair
verst hair match in the game, Game Informer with an
eight point five out of ten, Game Spot with an
out of ten, games, Radar Plus with a four out
of five, stars Ign with an eight out of ten,
and Shack News with an eight out of ten. So overall,
pretty damn good. They keep getting better, so that's good.
(55:31):
The disaster of two K twenty turned this entire franchise around.
Maybe twenty five will get a nine. Who knows, but
we've been on a pretty damn good role lately, And
I said with twenty three, this is probably my favorite
wrestling game I've played since two K nineteen, or with
the old statement man, even going back to like maybe
(55:53):
the SmackDown versus RAS I don't know, or Twitter is thirteen.
Speaker 3 (55:56):
Which is big for you because you said, for a while,
we're out of the arrestings for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
This year though. Twenty four pretty damn good, Pretty damn good.
I really liked it.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
But I want to hear how good I thought it was,
because right now it is time to rate the game. Look,
all right, John, I'm going to have you go first,
because we all know that I'm going to probably be
(56:32):
a little pretty long winded on this.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
Uh well, it's gonna be a play it forever. And
I say that not only because it's a good game
that we played religiously. This year. We played the crap
out of this game. I feel like we got our
money's worth and some for this game. Oh yeah, but
(56:55):
I want to go back and do those my Rise
modes and see what I was missing, because maybe there's
some parts this year that I'm gonna miss out on.
So maybe it's time to fire up this Xbox here
and play have that one like running thread that goes
through it's usually cole Quinn col Quinn, I think, what's
the I think Justine is, Yeah, she's in. She's in
(57:19):
the my Rise for the female storyline that Insterdly Justine. Yeah,
that was cool and I'm gonna play it forever. It
was really good, and it's it's up there with the nineteens,
the twelves, the ones I remember. I'm gonna remember this
one for a long time. George, what about you?
Speaker 3 (57:39):
Uh yeah, I'm right there with you, man. This is
a big old play at forever. Try to keep this
as short and sweet as possible for me as a
wrestling video game fan. It checks all the boxes. Man,
it plays well, it looks great. There's I think one
(58:00):
of the things that has become one of my more
favorite parts of the two K games is the downloadable content,
the community creations, because it's not just attires and wrestlers.
People are getting very creative with the arenas that they
make and things like that, Like there's one that you
can fight on top of the Golden gate Bridge.
Speaker 2 (58:21):
I have no.
Speaker 3 (58:22):
Idea how someone made that, but that is an arena
that you can wrestle in. It is literally just like
you're fighting in a section of the Golden gate Bridge,
which is crazy. And I think seeing how people are
using the game itself to do stuff like that, like
I'm just like, Wow, what are the things that people
are going to make as community creations that are then
(58:42):
going to become actual parts of the game. Like it's
it's kind of really fun to kind of suspend disbelief
for a second ago. Wow, you know, maybe you could
have a match on a bridge somewhere, and how would
you work that into your universe mode or something like that.
Speaker 2 (58:58):
All you need is snoop Doug and yeah, you make
it happen.
Speaker 3 (59:02):
Yeah. I think it was either this year a couple
of years ago someone made the WWF New York, like
the when you're fighting in Times Square from one of
the the throw again, Like that's really cool. Like those
are things that you know they're not going to put
in modern day games, but people are using the engine
itself to build those things. So that has always or
(59:22):
has recently been one of the things that I've enjoyed.
But yeah, yeah, play for everything about this game was great.
The little the minor bugs that we've encountered don't negate
the overall experience by a long shot, But we want
to know what you guys think. What was your experience
with WWE two K twenty four. Excuse me, would you
(59:45):
give it a play forever or a future endeavor or
are you somewhere in the middle, And let us know
if you're looking forward to K twenty five as well.
But with that, John, are you ready to get into
this week's soft It's do all right? The soft lock
(01:00:15):
is the second one. A podcast or one of our
mega marks from our Patreon gives us a topic to discuss,
the little section to debate. It's a question of the
week with a fancy name. It's what we do here
this week. It comes from Soups Soups. The soupyman would
like us to would like us to put together our
(01:00:37):
dream showcase mode. What is your dream showcase mode? And
what matches would you include? The first thing that comes
to mind, which I do believe that they have done before,
is Legend.
Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Killer Randy Orton, Ooh, that's a good one.
Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
I like, I think that would be cool. Or what
was the event? Was it Raw one thousand that they
had all the legends come back and like do their
finishers to heath later over the course of like it
like the lead up into Row one thousand?
Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Yeah, I think it was like weeks leading up it
was like lead a yeah, APA.
Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
Like some somehow like see that's right. Yeah, I don't know,
they're like obviously there. It's like these one minor little
spots on a whole show. But like something like that
could be cool as a showcase, just like what if,
like if the whole showcase was what if? You know,
(01:01:39):
what if you know big wrestler from the eighties or
the nineties wrestled someone today in their prime. Like it's
almost like a kind of like a modern day All Stars.
I like it. What about you?
Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
All right? Given recent events and recent are innerships.
Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
Oh, I know what you're going to say.
Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
I want an AJ Styles Showcase mode now. I want
to go back to like Jerry Lynn and low Key
on pay per view. I want to go back to
Destination X against Christopher Daniels. I want that Christopher Daniels
Samoa Joe match, and then I want his debut.
Speaker 4 (01:02:21):
At the Rumble.
Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
I want Sena Sena. We could skip schin Skate because
that match sucked. It was good, it was just wrong place,
wrong time.
Speaker 3 (01:02:31):
Finn right, there's there's multiple fins.
Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
That first Finn match that wasn't supposed to happen. Someone
got sick, I remember, and it was like a fill
in inner promotional match, boneyard match.
Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
Oh yeah, that's got to be in there.
Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Yeah. And then I mean where do you end it though,
because he kinda hasn't done a lot since feuded with
La Knight and he's getting injured but he should be back.
Speaker 3 (01:02:57):
Yeah yeah he's back, but you do uh you could
do his run with uh Omas because he was champion,
that's true, that's true when he was with the maas
Dylan's friend Omas.
Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Yeah, I want I want you could even end it
at the Boneyard match.
Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
That's that's a great You get.
Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
Abyss in there. The Lockdown match, Oh my god, oh yeah,
that that's an ultimate X.
Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
It's not a competition, but I think you won the
softie man, like you're You're your pitch for that was
so much better. Like I love everything about that, Like
it hits on every note. It touches on the new partnership.
You're getting AJ throughout like the generations of his career.
You get short hair AJ all the way up to
long hair AJ.
Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
Now, yo, can we get short hair AJ officially in
the game now? Please? Someone?
Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
Yeah, and you would it would be short hair and
like trunks.
Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Yeah, oh oh that's cool.
Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
That's The more we talk about it, the more I'm
like shs or something like this.
Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
What if one of the DLC packs is like a
TNA pack, because you could do. But I'm gonna assume
like Jordan Grace.
Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
Is Joe Hendry, he's been popping up so much.
Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
But Jordan Grace is actually on the roster, so she
might already be DLC for later down the line.
Speaker 4 (01:04:20):
Yeah, I say, with machine guns, machine gun's machine guns
across the line pack Jordan Grace the machine Guns, Joe
Hendry Moose, he's on NXT Moose, Josh Alexander, I think
he left, but.
Speaker 3 (01:04:38):
That'd be great TNA tn A.
Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Who would have thought. That's a hell hell of a
pitch there, John, bring it, you know, Mark?
Speaker 3 (01:04:50):
That's great? All right? Well, next week on the podcast, guys,
we are gonna be playing King of Colisseum two. We
have done King of Colosseum D. We have done King
of Colosseumgreen. It is now time to do King of
Colosseum two and this is for the PlayStation two and
we hope that you will come and join us for
(01:05:12):
that game next episode. And as always, you can check
out all of the video content that we make over
on our YouTube channel, YouTube dot com Slash Game marks Pod.
I would also invite you to check out Johnny Clash's
Twitch streams over at twitch dot tv slash Johnny Clash
t tv. Also, if you would like to check out
(01:05:33):
the exclusive content that we are making alongside our good
buddy Dylan Possel, that is available over at Patreon dot
com slash pod Exchange. It's early access to shows. It
is show notes, ad free versions, and a whole lot
more if you wanted to pick up some pod Exchange merch,
that's over at pod exchange dot shop. That is all
(01:05:56):
things pot Exchange. We have a pro Wrestling te store
prorestlin Teas dot com. Slash Game Marx Pod. We are
available on all forms of social media at Game Marx
Pod and as always we'd really appreciate it if you
would like comment, subscribe and ring that notification bell. And
as always, if there is a product or service you
(01:06:16):
would like to advertise on this podcast, please reach out
to us over at Gamemarxpod at gmail dot com. Another
game in the books. Very excited to see what happens
with WWE two K twenty five. Whenever you're ready, John,
do that thing.
Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
Game over Marx game Marks Podcast, put them on the radar,
play a rare game, Sega Saturn, no game Shart, Johnny.
Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
And George work hard and they play hard future of
endeavored games and put them in the graveyard from the
deep dives in the class at the face I cannot
give more, and ask question of the Week, follow one
Twitch There's nothing that they won't play.
Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
Game Marks Podcast every single Monday
This is Tony Chimmel and I'd like to introduce the
hosts of the game Marks Podcast, George Feast and Johnny Clash.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome to the game Marks Podcast. We're each and every
week we take a deep dive into the good, the bad,
and the awesome of all things video games. I'm the
man they call Johnny Clash and.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
I am George Feast, and today we are playing ww
E two K twenty four. Guys, That's crazy. I can't
believe enough time has passed for this game. Is vifeful
to be on the podcast. It is finally time to
put a bow on this game as we gear up
for twenty five.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
That's Crazy and please subscribe and leave a five star
review for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, in Spotify, and
follow us on all forms of social media at game
mark spot and don't forget. You can get this episode
early ad free Patreon, dot Com, slash pot Exchange, along
with the show notes, discord access, live recordings like this
one right now, giveaways and more from us and our
(01:24):
good friend Dylan Postle.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Absolutely up coming up soon, maybe in the next couple
of weeks. We got a Patreon Muppets trivia that we
got to get through jobs.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I'm scared of that.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
He's scared. I'm not looking forward to it, Dylan keeps asking.
I know that he's been busy. You've been busy. We've
all got things going on. So that is coming up
soon for sure. But let's do a little bit of
follow up from the last episode. We played one of
the first wrestling arcade games at poor Not really sure
(02:02):
how to pronounce that. Still, yeah, it could be just
at pooh, But how are you feeling? We both gave
it a future endeavored, not from a gameplay aspect, just
from a replayability. Not really enough meat on the bone.
How are you feeling?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Just not the
fact that it was a bad game. I think it
was ahead of its time, like I said in my review,
and it overall played pretty good and looked good and
felt good. It was just not something that had enough
meat to go back and you know, put some more
time into It's the same thing over and over again
and with no real roster. I know there were parodies,
(02:47):
but there was just nothing to like look forward to
in the game. But overall, decent game. I'll keep it,
keep it in the old way Back Machine.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, it was an enjoyable experiences to say that we
got to go back and play one of the more
one of the earlier wrestling games that were ever released.
But we're going from one of the earliest to one
of the most recent. Ah Man, we got to talk
about all things WW two K twenty five before we
(03:20):
get into this week's game, which is two K twenty four.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It's out in eight days as we're recording this, which
is crazy because it's snuck up on us. It really
did I have here the Showcase match list? I'm not
that into it. I thought the Bloodline Showcase would be
the career of the Bloodline, but it's the whole Bloodline dynasty,
(03:49):
and you have the option to relive matches, change them,
or create them. So I mean, you start off with
Yokozuna and Hulk Hogan. That's kind of like what, I
don't want that? And then you go to Raw where
Rocky my Villa versus Hunter Hurst Hemsley. Then you get
Naya Jacks vers Layaval Korea for the Queen of the Ring.
(04:10):
Then you get Jimmy and Jay versus The The New
Day Great Matches. Why does that belong in the bloodline dynasty.
I don't know. I guess it's just all about the bloodline.
Like then they're just.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
To celebrate the it's it's more about.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So even Naomi's included in this. It's the dynasty.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I think he's the word that they've been using. It's
like it's about the bloodline and the Samoan dynasty.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
You get obviously Roman and Cody because you got last
year's and last year's game. But it's just this is
odd to me. Roman and Seth, Roman, Cody, Rosie and
Jamal versus a Com and Rezar who are not even
employed by the w W anymore. The AOP.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I think, I think you're getting fantasy matches here, but
that you're gonna.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Whose fantasy is that? Two mid card tag teams? Like
oh wow? And then you got the Islanders Tama and
Haku against montes Ford and Angelo Dawkins, Sika and Afa
versus the Dudley Boys, Like what what is this crap?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Yeah, it's create Okay, I see how they listed it out,
so it's okay. Yeah, I was trying to follow along
as you were reading through this, but it's yeah, they're
broken up into three different categories. I thought with any match,
you had the option to relive, change, or create. So
it's broken up into three different showcases. It's relive history,
(05:42):
where you can follow the path of Superstars and just
relive those matches. There's Change History, which is you can
change the losses into victories. And then there's the matches
that job we're just talking about, which is create, which
is a dream matches across generations. Okay, so now in
(06:03):
that context it makes a little bit more sense. I
thought everything was that option where every match you had
the option to change it, edit it, like you could
go into the showcase might be like, yeah, Roman Reigns
vers seth Ronlands was great, but what if it was
Roman Reigns for someone else.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, I don't know. I'm still gonna probably go through
all of them. I'll put them all up on YouTube
as I did last year. But this is just not
looking too great. The only good part is you're not
getting those stupid cut scenes in the middle anymore. That
ruin every single streaming algorithm there is. You're gonna just
play the match through now, so that is probably gonna
(06:41):
be a lot more fun. And uh yeah, I mean, like, no,
Mercy two thousand, your Kishi ver Stone hold in the
no holds Barred match eh Umaga Johnson in a New
Year's Revolution World Championship. That was cool, that was a
great match. Should be in there, But I would have
(07:01):
liked to see I guess the past, like what three
or four years, maybe even goes past that I think
goes into the pandemic, the past five years, six years
documented as like a timeline.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
That's I think that's what a lot of people thought
that this was gonna be.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Like this is when Roman came back, this is when
he won the Universal title, this is when he won
that title. This is his whole path of destruction leading
to his downfall, leading to solo, leading to them at Wargames,
him losing to Code he done.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, I think I think a lot of people thought
that that's what it was going to be, especially you know,
with with other members of the of the family, of
their family thrown in with other types of matchups. But well,
I have to see. I wonder what interesting treatments they're
gonna give this because I always feel they have some
(07:54):
kind of curveball that you know, you may not expect.
There's always something that they don't necessarily list out that
you only experience once you're in the middle of playing
the games, and I feel, you know, you're as you're
going through the Showcase mode. So I'm kind of excited
to see what that aspect is going to be. But
it's definitely a different showcase than what we've seen in
(08:15):
the past, that's for sure. But they've kind of done
that the last couple of years. There was every John
Sena loss, there was the split showcase that they had.
It's this is just like a next version of that.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, well, the next news here we got my Riz Mode.
They're now going to include live events, which are optional
matches that you could unlock different superstars, My Faction cards
and original Myriz characters like Cole Quinn, who's going to
be unlockable, and Demon Finn Balor is also an unlockable
in that mode. So I guess that's their answer to
(08:53):
everyone complaining about My Faction cards and the players unlocked
only being available in My Faction. Now you could unlock
them a different way in Myriz Mode. Also, in my
Rise mode, you're gonna have different endings per I don't
know if they're splitting it up again in a male
and female story. I would assume they are. The personality
type you choose affects the way your character acts and
(09:15):
response to the world around them, but it affects what
stories you have available to you as well and the endings. Okay,
so that's kind of cool. We saw DDP here at
a indie arena in his tristratus, also in their current attire,
so that's cool. I guess they're gonna be like indie events,
(09:37):
which they've stuff here.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
They've kind of had stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah, it shows the Merge Table Grapple Legends arena. There's
a screenshot here Riha Ripley from Myra's Mode holding three championships,
all the women's titles. That's kind of cool. I guess
that is something to do with the storyline.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
About DLC so far. So there's the pre ordered DLC,
which is the y At six. Then there's the uh
the pre order or the the dead Man Edition pack
which you get Brother Love, Undertaker nineteen ninety and the
Undertaker Elite figure, which I don't know. Have have you
(10:18):
ever played matches with the figure styles?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Not even once.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
I it's a cool uh, it's a cool feature to
see like live action figures in the video game. I
just wonder if there's I don't know, I guess there's.
There's a there's a market for for everything. I just
would be curious of, like is it, like, are enough
people using these that it's it's worth it. It's a
(10:43):
cool looking.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I guess I guess they are.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
It's a cool looking for sure. Yeah. It's an awesome
like shake up to the graphic style for sure, like
every like the action figures look exactly like their action figures.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I think it's awesome that everyone complained about Jay Usso
being exactly the same as last year, and they went
in and they put a brand new entrance in for him.
Coming down from the crowd. The crowd's yeating with him,
and it looks really cool. I mean, the crowd is
a little well, you know, it's the crowd. They're all
kind of stiff and bending weird, but you get what
you get. I think it was a cool addition. Then
(11:20):
the shows they're listening, so that's always a good thing.
There's a nineteen minute video out with some my Rise footage,
so if you want to check that out. I think
that is on the Let's say, where is this.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Well John was set up? There's also for the Bloodlined
Edition pack, you get the jay Usso Elite, the Roman
Reigns Elite, and the Rock Nation of Domination.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Ooh, it's on the ig N YouTube account, so you
could check that out there. We also got a new
menu screen which is going back to let's see which
one was that two K nineteen?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, which is the one with Adre.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I think it's like the style of the one with
Adre that's nineteen. Yeah, it's going back to like the
nineteen menu. Yeah, the uh not the main menu the
is it? No? Because nineteen had that cool like black
and white one, so I think it might have been eighteen.
(12:23):
I don't know. I don't know. It's one of those.
Don't if you're out there and you know what I'm
talking about, hit me up. But it looks pretty cool.
It's cleaner, nice image of a wrestler, and then the
box is under it. What more do you want? I
thought the past few years were cool also, but it
was time for change after using it three years in
a row, and I am looking forward to this game.
I have my pre order set for Steam this time.
(12:46):
I don't need the Island. I'm gonna get Fomo for sure.
I know, and if it ever goes on Xbox Game Pass,
I'll probably end up downloading it on both, so.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Well, you can be sure to know, you could be
sure that John and I will absolutely be putting the
time in to play through this game thoroughly, as we've
done for the last couple of years with all of
these games. But did we want to talk. I mean
we touched on it briefly last time. The graphics, the textures,
(13:21):
the models for all the characters are just when you
think that it can't get better, they improve the lighting,
the textures, the physics of clothing and of hair, and
everything just looks cleaner in a way that you didn't
think that could even be possible. This looks, this looks
(13:43):
really really good.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I'm afraid that we're going to get the PC version
or the Xbox version and it's not going to be
as nice as the Series X and the PS five version.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
It's possible.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
It's going to be a minor difference. But these videos
that they're showing are obviously in the highest quality possible. Yeah,
and I want that quality. But either way, it's always
it's always nice to look at, so it'll be fine.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I think we're all
excited to play this in as of recording a couple
of days. So without any further Ado, John, we got
to get excited for two K twenty five by closing
the door on two K twenty four. What do you
say You're ready to get into it.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Let's do it. Let's finish the story. Looking to add
the newest wrestling figures to your lineup, there's no better
spot to pick up your next figure than the Wrestling
Collector Shop.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Started by collectors for collectors around the globe, Wrestling Collector
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So the next time you're looking for the newest wrestling
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(15:15):
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Speaker 2 (15:18):
That's ten percent off your order with code game marks
at Wrestling Collectorshop dot com.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
All right, the deep dive brought to you by our
friends over at Wrestling Collector Shop. You just heard the ad.
Make sure go over to Wrestling Collectorshop dot com and
use code game marks to save yourself ten percent on
your order and courtesy of our friends at Wrestling Collector Shop,
we are giving away a figure John. What are we
(15:52):
giving away and what do the people have to do
to win?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Taking a selfie so I could post it on social media?
There it is. You can get this very This is
one of my favorite figures I've I have a story
about this figure, but it is a Royal Rumble Elite
Hurricane figure. So you better stand back. And all you
have to do to enter is leave us a review
(16:15):
on Apple or Spotify. Screenshot that review and send it
to us on any form of social media at game
Mark spot and you will be eligible to win, and
we will announce the next episode who the winner is.
And let me tell you my story here. The last
ever figure that I purchased as a kid that was
(16:37):
going into my fig fed was this Jack specific Hurricane.
It was impossible to find toys, r US didn't have it,
KB didn't have it. My mom finally found like a
hobby shop in Farmingdale on Main Street. Don't know what
it was, don't know the name of it. Never been
there before, never we'll go there again. It probably doesn't
(16:59):
even exist anymore. And they had it and we paid
like double price for it, but I literally took it
out of the package said, holy crap, this is the
greatest figure I've ever owned in my life. It's got
the soft goods cape and everything, the painted on face paint.
I put it in the bin and I never played
with it because I was too old. And that was
the last one.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Oh well, we've come full circle now.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Shortly after that, my aunt, for like my birthday or
something bought me a Ruthless Aggression RVD and that sat
in the box in the bin for like five years
before I soald it. So geez, anyway, you could win
this Hurricane. Do what I just said, leave us review,
send it to us hell.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yes, all right, here we go. WWE two K twenty
four released March eighth, twenty twenty four, March fifth, if
you had early access, is available on PC, PlayStation five,
Xbox series S, Xbox one, and the PS four, developed
by Visual Concept, published by two K Sports, and other
(18:06):
wrestling games in twenty and twenty four. You've got AW
Rise to the Top and AEW Figure Fighters.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Wow. Tough competition here, yeah, but let's play either of
those games. Currently.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I have actually loaded up Rise to the Top for
the first time. Why I think I was going to
say that we should cover it, and I wanted to
see if anything had changed since the last time that
we played, because if that's for those of you who
are joining us for the first time or I don't know,
(18:44):
the last time that we mentioned this. The rule that
we have on the podcast is that a game comes out,
we don't play it immediately on release. We give the
game a year so that they can work through patches
and fixed bugs and things like that and new content
for games that do that, and then we address it
a year after. That's why we're doing two K twenty
(19:05):
four today because it is now viable. All of the DLC,
all the patches are, you know, to my knowledge. To
my knowledge, there's no major game breaking bugs that need
to be patched. It's probably just like small little quality
of life updates that will happen until they eventually sunset
it eight months to a year from now. That being said,
(19:27):
Figure Fighters and Rise to the Top, I did want
to see where they fell in all of that. So yeah,
I did load up Rise to the Top to see
if it was a potential option to cover. And it
will be soon, all right, But WWE two K twenty
four currently as of recording because it hasn't been released yet,
(19:49):
is the most current version of WWE two K. This
iteration of the game celebrates forty years of WrestleMania and
has a roster of over three hundred and thirty superstars
and legends.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Man, so we will not be reading the roster this week.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Yeah, that's that's a lot. And uh, of course with
Cody as the cover artist or the cover artist, the Curve,
the cover superstar for this uh game, you have the
tagline of finish your story.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
There was also something crazy around this time. We're going
to get into the different versions of the game, but
it came out what a month after, month before or
a month before WrestleMania, but you were guaranteed if you
bought a certain edition to get the WrestleMania Arena, right
the forty years of WrestleMania edition. It was something weird
like that, like they would put it in.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
As a special edition that came out. Yeah, that had
specific unlocks like like they usually do. But yeah, I
do remember something about the arena itself.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, we've played a lot of this game. If you
know us, head on over to our YouTube game Markspod
and check out GMP twenty four. It's our universe mode
that we've been playing all year long. George drafted a team.
I drafted a team. We go head to head each week.
We got storylines, we got plots, we got pay per
view events, and it's a whole lot of fun. And
we're closing in on the end of that season as
(21:16):
we make our way over to two K twenty five.
So go check that out. Let us know what you
think if you want more in depth gameplay of twenty four.
So we have a lot of fun doing it. So
we've put a lot of time into this game. We
know the mechanics, we know how it works.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
We finally figured out cut scenes eight finally to making
the show.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Finally figured out how to do that. So that's cool.
Thanks to some video dding skills and just us being technical.
I won't even say geniuses, because we know what happens
when we get in charge of the wheel.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Let's talk about where technical geniuses it would have taken
us eight months to figure Yeah, let's.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Talk about the gameplay improvements from two K twenty three.
Backstage Brawl now supports up to four players and has
more weapons and interactions around the arena. Double title matches
are now allowed, so you could do two championships at once.
That you know, Roman reigns holding up two titles. It
goes hand in hand with the title and all that
improved hit detection and AI that strikes, grapples, en counters
(22:13):
feel more responsive and polished, which is the first thing
I noticed loading into this game. The first match I
had was an ambulance match. It was aj Styles I
think against Kofi Kingston because I picked two randoms and yeah,
and it just felt I loved twenty three. It felt
so much smoother and just crisp, and I was like,
(22:36):
oh wow, this feels good. And another thing they added
was the camera flashes in the crowd. Yeah, a big
move happens, and it's not that overbearing that it's annoying,
but it's there and I think it's kind of cool.
It gets you up there, and it's not like one
(22:57):
of the older games had that but only for a finisher,
but not if it was reversed. This does it for both,
so it kind of makes it like a little realistic
where the camera flash, Oh you didn't hit it, It.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Kind of cool, didn't Day of Reckoning or one of
the GameCube games have you know they had. They always
had those camera cuts that were like, you know, you
would get like the super slow mo cam, or you
would get like the really hate those. But then there
would also be like insane amounts of flash photography that
(23:28):
would be happening during that. And I while those were fun,
use that in quotes because you just said you didn't
like it. But while some people may have enjoyed that
more back in the day, I feel like if you
tried to do something like that now, it would just well, one,
(23:48):
that's not really the style of the WWE wrestling games anymore.
It's they try to go a little bit more grounded
and realistic with the presentation. But man, they I'm like
you said, I'm really glad they stopped doing the crazy
amounts of photography and the unbelievably bright colors, the unbelievably
(24:10):
bright flashes that would just absolutely like wash out the screen.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
The crazy thing is that's how wrestling used to be,
you know what. It would be absolutely insane but amazing.
If WWE put a section on their website and said,
if you have ever taken a photo at our show,
upload it by date, and they just had a huge
database of everyone's live photos, like almost like they're a
(24:39):
new social media of WWE photos from events from history.
That's such like a large undertaking that will never happen,
But how cool would that be? You just literally go
to a date, you could say, Okay, January eleventh, nineteen
ninety nine, N'saw Coliseum. Oh, Johnny Clash posted pictures, you know,
just like a social media of wrestling pictures.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah. I think that that's a cool that's a really
cool idea.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I got ideas they do.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
This thing now at certain certain events where I think
it started at baseball games or maybe it was at
at football games. I don't know. It was with some
big arena things where there's a camera that like is
on a track that goes around the arena and takes
a photo of the entire area, and then you can
(25:31):
go up, like you know, you can go on the
website and find yourself like in the seat that you
were in, like throughout the course of the night, reacting
to the show.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I was in one of those for an Islanders playoff game.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Okay, maybe maybe that's where I heard about it from.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Maybe you could really zoom in on them.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah, maybe you told me about that. Maybe that's where
maybe that's where I heard that.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Maybe we digress. Uh, the stamina and damage system has
been tweaked this year, and you could see that firsthand
if you go to our playthrough of our last met
last Man's Standing match, because last year's game two K
twenty three when we covered it, I think one of
the times we played two K twenty three, we had
a last man's Standing match that lasted probably forty five minutes.
(26:17):
It just kept going on and on endless. You get
the meter every time you get stamina dream then you're
back up. It's just constant up and down. These are
more realistic. They're realistic in the way that like longer fights,
less happens. You're not getting up and just boom boom
(26:39):
boom boom. You're tired. For example, the last Man's Standing match,
your meter doesn't even start sometimes till seven eight or
nine because you just got hit with a million finishers,
so you're not gonna get that chance to do dun
hit the thing in the middle and get up immediately.
Love that.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yeah, it was really really it's again it's one of
those things that they just improve on the mechanics to
make it a little bit more realistic, a little bit
more authentic in the presentation of a.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Little bit Oh sorry, yeah, yeah that could be. Let's
talk about the game modes here, because there are some
new match types. Special Guest Referee has returned. Yes, finally,
is it perfect? Absolutely not. I've literally done it once
(27:30):
and I was Chelsea Green and I was like, this
is the hardest thing I've ever had to do, because.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
I think you're going in with the thought of it
being like no Mercy, where it's just like button it's
one button and you have free reign to do anything,
and this game hits you with the old stone cold
and says, eh, there are rules, and there are there
are limitations to how far you can go, and if
you do too much and you push the bounties, it's
a special Guests Special Guests rep. You get kicked out
(27:57):
and then you're not the rep anymore.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I think that's exactly what happened to me. I was like, wait, wait, what, what,
why do we need rules in a video game? I
don't know. You could actually use an AI for that,
or you could control it yourself. Yep, And it's only
in one on one matches. So let's see if that
is changed this year.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Maybe they had a little bit more this year, that'd
be cool.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I think there's a woman ref in two K twenty
four and you can't hit her as the ref. So
maybe this year, now that inter gender matches are in there,
you could have a little more freedom with special guest referee. Also,
I think it.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Also depends on the match type and like the stipulations
of the match too, like if you yeah, maybe like
maybe it was maybe because you were trying to beat
up the ref in the last man standing match that
you can't target the ref because they need to make
the count and that part of that match is such
(28:58):
a long process to count to ten. Maybe I don't know,
I'm trying to just assign some kind of lot or
because yeah, maybe maybe it's just you can't target certain reps.
Maybe maybe it's because the match types. Who knows, Maybe
that's it.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
On the ambulance match is a lot of fun. The
ambulance is at ringside. You have to get the person
in there, but once they're in there, you have to
close the door and that's where the little minigame starts.
And it's not a ning.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Match that can go on for a really long time
because of that. But the ambulance itself fully interactive. You
can throw opponents into it, you can do moves on
the top of it, off of it. It's it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It's cool, it's interactive and it's a lot of fun.
Same with the casket match. It's pretty much the same dynamics.
You get them in the casket, you gotta close the lid,
but they're no, they're trying to get out of it.
And it's got a cool little minigame and it's a
fun mode that should have been in there. And now
if we could just get buried alive matches back, we'll
(29:56):
be all set and some inferno and that's pretty much everything,
right Punjabi prison. Maybe I don't know if do we
need that.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
I don't know if that works in a too many layers,
it's too many layers, and there's it's too complicated of
a match to if they were gonna do it now,
I feel like might be the time to do it,
because there's so much like like they've kind of done
so much that at a certain point maybe you try
to do it. But I don't necessarily know if people
(30:24):
are no they're not clamoring for it.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Gauntlet matches have also been at it. Now you have
your play and your exhibition I'm sorry, Excel bitchin on
your menu, and then you have my Faction, which is
where you collect and upgrade Superstars as trading cards. We
all know about that. I was thinking, this is the
year maybe I I dabble and see if I like it.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
So I've done. I genuinely think that it's something that
you would enjoy because it it kind of takes you
out of the like play through showcase, do your your rise,
and then once you're through at that and you're like,
well now the only thing that I'm going to go
(31:05):
in there and do is like I'll do a rumble
or I'll just hit random and play some matches. I
think that's the point that you would you should go
and do my Factor because it's it kind of like
once you're past making your your team and all that stuff,
it's kind of just go through play matches. Is they're
like assigned, so it's not like you're and you're always
(31:26):
kind of doing something different. So I think I do
think that you would enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Well, we'll find out. I don't really enjoy the one
in NHL. So, and then you have your Universe mode,
which is you know, your sandbox. They have expanded storylines
this year, including more rivalry interactions and cutscenes, loser leave
town matches and retirement matches, and the ability to hold
multiple titles. I gotta guys, I'm sorry, I'm like so nasally.
I was in Disney last week and those little snot
(31:52):
nosed kids the second the day I got home from Disney,
it was like, oh, you're sick. So I don't know that.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
You sound fine to me. I'm sure you probably don't
feel great.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
I'm struggling tough, I get certain words on I'm like
lose and.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
But audio wise, you sound you sound good. I'm sorry
that you don't feel great, but.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
I sound like the nanny right now. Uh. You have
your Showcase mode, which celebrates forty years of WrestleMania, featuring
legendary matches. It goes all the way up to Cody
and Roman from last years, WrestleMania two years ago, I
mean not last year, and all of those are on
my personal YouTube at Johnny Clash in their entirety, so
you could go check out every single forty years of
(32:31):
WrestleMania Showcase match over there. I streamed them all and
I'm gonna do it again this year, despite not liking
what I'm seeing so far. Now you're my rise modes.
Undisputed was the men's and Unleashed was the women's. I
didn't do them. I started the women's, but I never
finished it. Now. I grinded to get the two K
twenty three ones done before twenty four came out, and
(32:53):
I put so much time, so much effort. Every night
I was sitting there trying to get it done just
in time for this game to come out. That went
it did come out. I loaded the Xbox, I made
the I made the same character, the same woman from
the last game to a t like I copied, I remembered.
I wrote down, like, Okay, this hairstyle, this this face,
blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Never did you had a full uh full create a
rest of the recipe like it was I did.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
I literally did. Who am I going to create as
a woman like one Eita Clash? I don't know, Jenny Clash,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
So I used to play through both of them. I
think you can do it.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
I think I still named her LJ just like that,
So I don't know, I, you know, tell my Xbox forever.
I could go back and play it, and there's a
chance that I do my GM mode. There are new features.
You can now have inner brand trading and scouting new talent.
There's more GM options like as your GM avatar, like
who you are, and expanded season lengths and new rivalries.
(33:57):
And we know the they're going to keep updating my
this year. There's even more stuff in there. So online play, right,
pretty cool? Online play something we could do something we sir, all.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Right, you take a break. I feel like you've.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Been water drop or something. I cough drop water, I
pack a lip. I'm packing a cough drop in my lip,
so I could just keep sucking it as I talk.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
I'm gonna go read through the match types. You want
to go make like yourself, a cup of tea or something.
Take a shot of money. You're good.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
They got cough drops.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Oh cool, it's your match types four WW two K
twenty four. You've got your normal extreme rules, backstage brawl, ladder, table,
hell in a cell, steel cage, TLC, ironman, false count anywhere, submission,
last man standing, no holds, barred elimination, Chamber Battle Royale,
(34:48):
a Gauntlet match from four to up to thirty Superstars,
A Gauntlet Eliminator from four to up to thirty Superstars,
Gauntlet Turmoil four to up to thirty Superstars, a ten
person Those Terrible ten Person Battle or ten Person Royal Rumble,
twenty Person Royal Rumble, thirty Person Royal Rumble, three v
(35:11):
three war games, four v four wargames, a handicapped match,
and tournaments which you could do a one v one tournament,
a tag team tournament, the Dusty Rhodes Classic, and the
Mixed Match Challenge. Who But the additions don't.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Stop one thing I want to see change that I
don't think we can, Okay. I want to be able
to use war games in any arena, and I don't
understand why they can't do a normal arena and put
the the shark cages whatever you want to call them,
on the stage.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Could it might be well, because it's isn't it like
behind the ring.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
In the in the game top like the NXT arena.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Yeah, Like you walk down the ramp, but the cages
aren't on the entrance ramp, or maybe they are, and
they turn the camera angle for the match. No, they're
like up top, they are up top, they're like up
in the like the stands. But yeah, I don't know that.
I'm curious to see what they're gonna do with war
Games this year. I do know that I'm not a fan.
(36:22):
I think it just ends too quick. Like, yeah, so
much damage has been done if you're playing, uh, you know,
with the unless you have a full you know, six
v or three v three or four before everyone has
a controller. By the time that the match actually begins,
so much damage has been done that once the match
(36:42):
officially starts, it's over within a couple of minutes. It's
not like it continues to go on. Uh. And that's
just in the couple of matches that I've tried. John
and I have done a couple as well, and uh, yeah,
maybe there is something in the settings that you can change,
but that's just from our experience. But yeah, I'm curious
to see what they do in two K twenty five
with four games, if they change anything. If they uh,
(37:05):
maybe that's one of those hidden little features that they'll
be like, oh yeah, by the way, we didn't announce this,
but war Games is in there, and we fixed it,
and it, you know, operates in the proper way and
you can pick any arena.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Yeah that might be cool. Not my favorite match type
like to watch and play. So yeah, let's talk about
the new weapons here that we could throw at each
other's face, because that is a new ability that you
could throw weapons again, just like No Mercy, and boy
do we take advantage of it?
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Is it just got his combo. You hit someone with
the weapon so they're knocked down, and then as soon
as they get up, you throw the weapon.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, it's great. You now have a trash can, a guitar,
a microphone, la chankla, which are flip flops, a slim gym,
barbed wire bat light, tube, door, megaphone, a football, and
an Apple, not an iPhone, just an Apple. Now, normally
this is where we would read the roster, but like
we said before this three yeah, we're not going to
(38:02):
do that. Everybody's in it. That's all you need to do.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Maybe maybe we throw in like an AI voice recording
here of everything, you know what.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
That's even too long and I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
That's a lot of names for everyone to listen to.
But all the heavy hitters are here. If you're familiar
with what the wrestling landscape has looked like for the
past couple of years, you got a fair fair chance
of naming a good portion of the roster. But yeah,
three hundred and thirty characters and the ability to download
creative wrestlers, and there's pre order bonuses and DLC. Man,
(38:34):
we got to talk about this pre order bonus and
the DLC. But before we do that, do you want
to take a quick break? Trump, Yes, I need some water,
all right. So we talked about the pre order bonuses
and what you can expect from that. So let's do that.
(38:57):
Let's break it down. The Standard Edition pre order bonus.
You get the Nightmare Family Pack, which was included in
all additions. You get the Undashing Cody Rhoads persona Superstar
Billy Graham, the American Dream Dusty Rhoads, you get the
Stardust character, and you get my Faction cards for Cody Roads,
Dusty Roads, and star Dust. Then if you had the
(39:21):
Deluxe Bonus addition, you have everything from the Standard Edition
plus access to the Season Pass, which grants access to
all of the five DLC packs, the my Rise Mega Boost,
which is boosted stats for your My Rise characters. And
then you have the Supercharger, which instantly unlocks all legends
(39:43):
and arenas in the game. Uh, I can't remember. Does
that also do title belts or do you have to
buy the title belts?
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Oh? I don't dabble in any of that, so I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
I think it might also be title belts, but I
might be wrong about that. But the Supercharger does unlock
a ton of content that you would have to either
buy from the store or play through the Showcase modes
to otherwise unlock. But it's all there legend wise, But
it doesn't unlock My Faction cards or certain Showcase stuff.
(40:18):
I know, sir. Maybe it doesn't log any Showcase stuff.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
No, I don't think it does.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
And then, of course, final the WrestleMania forty Year Edition,
you have everything from both previous packs plus the forty
Years of WrestleMania pack, which is Mania Moment, versions of
the Rock Triple H, Charlotte Flair and Randy Orton, WrestleMania arenas,
and additional My Faction content. And yes, I can confirm
(40:48):
that the Supercharger does not unlock anything from my Showcase.
It is just the general store content of legends and arenas.
And now it's time to talk about the five DLC packs.
So you have the e c W Punk Pack, which
is Cmpunk, the Dudley Boys, Sandman, and Terry Funk. You
(41:12):
have the Post Malone and Friends Pack, which christ includes
post Malone and other celebrity guest characters, which is Post Malone,
Hockey talk Man, Jimmy Hart, his Friends, Sensation, o' sherry
and the Headbangers. And then you have the Pat McAfee
(41:34):
Show Pack, which is all of the characters from the
Pat McAfee Show. You have the Global Superstar Pack, which
includes Jade Cargill in her debut into wrestling video games,
uh Michelle McCool, Dragon Lee, Carlito, uh Lyra, Valkyria, Kyrie Sane,
(41:57):
and Nia Jacks. And then finally, or no, not finally,
we've got more WCW pack brings in legends like DDP,
the Iron Cheek, Mister Perfect, the Great Muddha, and Lex Luger.
And then there is the Myrise Megaboost and the Supercharger,
which we talked about earlier. The uh Mega Myriz Megaboost
(42:18):
grants an additional two hundred attribute points to really give
your Myri's character a significant boost. Okay with that, John,
would you like to go and talk about the artwork.
There are multiple covers for this game. Are you ready
to dive in?
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (42:37):
For that very cool.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
We said before there's probably two my Rise most it's year.
There's actually only one. It's unified just so that there's
what only one my Rise this year? Oh for twenty five, Yeah,
it's gonna be unified. Before I said when reading them
that there was gonna be two again.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Okay, so for two K twenty five it is one
Myriz story interesting, interesting, interesting.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Sorry, just had to That's all good, It's all good.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
H So let's talk about this cover here, sticking with
the theme of the last couple of years, at least
from the uh from a text aspect, the two K
logo for WWE, these uh mostly the same. It's just
you know, now it runs the length of the the
case instead of it being across the top. But uh yeah,
(43:30):
multiple shots of Cody Rhodes, fireworks going off from the entrance.
It's multiple postes. Yeah, it's it's a really this is
I feel like we've said this the last couple of years.
These they're finally art again. Their art and they would
make really cool like they like, if you've removed the
two K twenty four logo and just had the WWE logo,
they could service posters.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah, that's like I would get that signed.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
Yeah, like, yeah, that's a great eight y ten. It's
a hell of a poster. It's awesome. I feel like
Rays was the first one that kind of brought that
back with like the super cool close up of the
mask and him, you know, mid jump, leap frog or
whatever he was doing on the cover of that. But yeah,
(44:18):
it's just it's these cool, multi layered action shots of
Cody on the basic one, on the standard edition, and
then on the Deluxe edition you've got Bianca bel Air
and Riho Ripley dual cover stars. It is. It's awesome.
(44:38):
It is follows its same style, kind of style as
the Cody cover, big headshots of Ria and Bianca in
the background, pyros in ring, mid match entrance pose shots
from both of them. It is. Uh, it's really really cool.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
I think that's my favorite cover. I like the colors.
I mean, as you can see behind me right now, I.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
Think that's the one that feels the most different.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Color presentation wise, and I like what they did how
on the standard edition with Cody, the color of the
two K reflects that, but then on the Deluxe edition
it's a little bit of like a magenta red and
a little bit of purple, and the two K section
is colored corded color chordated with that background. And then
(45:31):
on the forty Years of WrestleMania version, Man, that is
a cool, cool looking cover, very nostalgic, very tried in
true WrestleMania style font treatments.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
Of the It's almost like one of those Rob Schamburger
hal Haney design.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
Yes, yeah, that is. That is a great great analogy.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Maybe it would have been a Rob Shamburger if he
didn't if he's now Aw's guy, but it is.
Speaker 3 (46:05):
It's really cool. I think they did a really good
job with all three covers this year. They all, like
like we were saying before, could be signed eight x
tens posters collector's item regardless. They're very very cool looking,
very well designed. Yeah, and a lot of thought put
into it. But you know what else is really well designed?
(46:26):
John The game itself. It's really really like there's no
way around it. It's a really pretty game.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
Oh, there's actually a picture we have here of the
war Games where the cages are, so if you want
to check that.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Out, Oh there you go.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
I mean, yeah, what can you really say? It looks
like you're actually watching wrestling. You can't really critique it now,
Yeah you can nitpicksing like, oh, Solo's face doesn't look great,
but this year as it does. But you didn't think
that last year. You thought it was good too. You
out there making the complaint, but I won one gripe
(47:02):
and you notice this and showcase the most. When you're
in the big arena. For some reason, there's a wall
in your vision, so like it'll cut back and forth
between like say WrestleMania SummerSlam, and then it goes to
the real one. It doesn't show this, but then it
goes to the gameplay and it's like crowd wall, crowd.
(47:27):
I don't know why that wall is there in every
single arena.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
But it's never you definitely have it, but it's not.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
The TNA Impact Zone has it, but not you know,
like Lucas Oil Stadium or whatever.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
I don't know, but I said it during our playthrough
before the crowd. I don't think i've ever really like
the crowd has looked really good for the last couple
of years, But I don't think that, you know, we've
kind of always just like glossed over it, like it's
the very sim of the crowd. You know, We've come
miles from the paper PNG gift style crowd of them
(48:04):
just going back and forth with like one or two animations,
Like there's a lot of depth, there's a lot of
different shirts. The overall presentation of the crowd itself close
up to the guard rail and when you would go
out into the crowd to fight outside the ring, over
the apron is over the barricade, is very realistic. But
(48:30):
I don't think I've ever appreciated beyond that, which is
pretty much what John's talking about now. Everything beyond the
close immediate crowd. There's movement. The camera flashes that we
were talking about earlier all happens back there as well.
It just it really helps with the immersion the presentation,
(48:52):
Like it just helps with the realism of this game,
which the last couple of years, I feel like they've
really nailed that aspect of it. And yeah, sometimes the
face models may be off, the character models themselves may
be slightly off I think over the course of the
last couple of years, there's always some like weird hair
(49:14):
thing that happens, but those things are kind of hard
to capture, like you gotta. I don't know. Hair has
never been something that has ever really bothered me in
a game for how the hair flows. I rather other
aspects of the game work, you know, yeah, like they're
(49:36):
supposed to. But I get it, I understand. You know.
Everything else looks great, and there's that one uncanny valley
kind of moment that takes you out of the realistic presentation.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
I feel you. I feel were you there. I don't
know if you were there. I was streaming twenty four
once and I, oh, it was a razor and Sean
WrestleMania ten.
Speaker 3 (49:57):
Oh. Yeah, I know exactly what you're trying to say.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
And I don't remember what the move was, but I
hit a move, and I like, did this weird glitch
over the barricade. Suddenly I was in the crowd, but
not where you should be, so I couldn't get back
into the ring. I could run anywhere I wanted in
the arena, I couldn't interact with anything. Though Sean wasn't
(50:22):
he might have been in the crowd with me, but
I couldn't get back over the barricade. I had to
restart the match, and I was like halfway through getting
all the accomplishments. But that was probably the craziest glitch
I've encountered. But at the same time, I was like,
it is possible to fight in the crowd and it
doesn't look too bad just running over people.
Speaker 3 (50:42):
Yeah, I know, I I agree. There are, like we said,
those very few moments that take you out of it.
I found it. So you Irish whip Sean as Razor
into the barricade, he reverses it, and then you both
glitch over. It's almost like the collision detection.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Was really because I was trying to get him out.
Speaker 3 (51:03):
Yeah, you both like rubber band over the barricade into
the crowd. And typically what happens when you go over
certain parts of the barricade to battle into the crowd,
like the crowd will move where there'll be like a
very clear path that you can go into the section
that you're supposed to fight out.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
They just look at you like, huh.
Speaker 3 (51:20):
You're just they're still looking at the crowd at the ring.
You're just now in there and what was the end
result that you could get back in start.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, that's so stupid, And some of that stuff took
forever to get to for the showcase.
Speaker 3 (51:35):
Yeah, but those those moments seem to be fewer and
far between nowadays.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
That's what I hope. I mean. Our friend the Beefy
Bagel boy Will in our discord has been sending his
own glitches. So what was his last one? I was
playing a match in two K Universe AJ and Luke
Gallows versus Jerry Lawler and some dude from the Pat
McAfee show out of Michael Cole, oh, out of know where.
Michael cold says, I haven't heard a crowd this fired
(52:01):
up since the Milan Miracle in two thousand and seven.
And that was it. Next match, the referee never showed up.
The match will never end. I had to quit, got
hit with a finisher and pinned. The kickout meter won't
start until after the one count after a finisher, and
he just had to quit the game. I do remember
hearing him mention that that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (52:19):
Yeah, that is wild.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
But he also mentioned did you know did you know
Rock Lesner remains in the two K Showcase? That was
not playable in the actual game.
Speaker 3 (52:35):
Did you know Cody Rhodes is the only superstar with
four different character robins in this game?
Speaker 2 (52:42):
Did you know two K twenty four was offered as
a free game for PS Plus subscribers in October of
twenty twenty four, but it's still available for full price
on Steam and your console stores. Jeez, speaking of stores,
I'm over here on my other screen our friend Shannon
Williams mark out digital card game.
Speaker 3 (53:01):
I saw this.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
He's developing a new game right now on Twitch. He's
doing it live retro game store simulator coming to Steam.
Speaker 3 (53:11):
He he repurposed the the existing Twitter, the existing Twitter
for the card game, and now has switched it over
to that.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
Damn. I love to see. Gakta is still also just
working on his his game.
Speaker 3 (53:32):
A lot of a lot of games coming out, still
a lot of a lot of cool potential games on
the horizon, a lot of interesting looking artwork, a lot
of interesting looking partnerships and deals being made. It's a
like we say it at least once a month, it's
a good time to be a wrestling video game player.
(53:53):
There's a lot of things that are coming out. There's
a lot of different options to go with.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
Yeah, even retro store simulator. I'm in to this.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
This looks super cool, super cool concept for sure. But hey, John,
what do you say we get into a little bit
of R and R some ratings and reviews.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
You know, as we get older, as the games progress,
as we get more recent, there's less reviews and I
like it Now. Metacritic, the Xbox xn S has an
eighty three out of one hundred. PS five with an
eighty one, and the PC with a seventy eight, we
could agree, Well, there's been some glitches we've encountered with
PC version, like losing hair. Hair not loading on created risk.
Speaker 3 (54:37):
So that's that is them patching out the hair glitch
that people were doing and that was the result. So
if you if someone uploaded to create a wrestler that
they utilized the hair glitch on, I believe two K
patched out the hair glitch so that when you use
the wrestler that still has the hair glitch, they end
up having no hair or in certain case, Kash, would
(55:02):
you like to say that they look like sometimes they
got the Tyson kid. The Tyson Kid, that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (55:09):
I was like, that's what we should have a hair
verst hair match in the game, Game Informer with an
eight point five out of ten, Game Spot with an
out of ten, games, Radar Plus with a four out
of five, stars Ign with an eight out of ten,
and Shack News with an eight out of ten. So overall,
pretty damn good. They keep getting better, so that's good.
(55:31):
The disaster of two K twenty turned this entire franchise around.
Maybe twenty five will get a nine. Who knows, but
we've been on a pretty damn good role lately, And
I said with twenty three, this is probably my favorite
wrestling game I've played since two K nineteen, or with
the old statement man, even going back to like maybe
(55:53):
the SmackDown versus RAS I don't know, or Twitter is thirteen.
Speaker 3 (55:56):
Which is big for you because you said, for a while,
we're out of the arrestings for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
This year though. Twenty four pretty damn good, Pretty damn good.
I really liked it.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
But I want to hear how good I thought it was,
because right now it is time to rate the game. Look,
all right, John, I'm going to have you go first,
because we all know that I'm going to probably be
(56:32):
a little pretty long winded on this.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
Uh well, it's gonna be a play it forever. And
I say that not only because it's a good game
that we played religiously. This year. We played the crap
out of this game. I feel like we got our
money's worth and some for this game. Oh yeah, but
(56:55):
I want to go back and do those my Rise
modes and see what I was missing, because maybe there's
some parts this year that I'm gonna miss out on.
So maybe it's time to fire up this Xbox here
and play have that one like running thread that goes
through it's usually cole Quinn col Quinn, I think, what's
the I think Justine is, Yeah, she's in. She's in
(57:19):
the my Rise for the female storyline that Insterdly Justine. Yeah,
that was cool and I'm gonna play it forever. It
was really good, and it's it's up there with the nineteens,
the twelves, the ones I remember. I'm gonna remember this
one for a long time. George, what about you?
Speaker 3 (57:39):
Uh yeah, I'm right there with you, man. This is
a big old play at forever. Try to keep this
as short and sweet as possible for me as a
wrestling video game fan. It checks all the boxes. Man,
it plays well, it looks great. There's I think one
(58:00):
of the things that has become one of my more
favorite parts of the two K games is the downloadable content,
the community creations, because it's not just attires and wrestlers.
People are getting very creative with the arenas that they
make and things like that, Like there's one that you
can fight on top of the Golden gate Bridge.
Speaker 2 (58:21):
I have no.
Speaker 3 (58:22):
Idea how someone made that, but that is an arena
that you can wrestle in. It is literally just like
you're fighting in a section of the Golden gate Bridge,
which is crazy. And I think seeing how people are
using the game itself to do stuff like that, like
I'm just like, Wow, what are the things that people
are going to make as community creations that are then
(58:42):
going to become actual parts of the game. Like it's
it's kind of really fun to kind of suspend disbelief
for a second ago. Wow, you know, maybe you could
have a match on a bridge somewhere, and how would
you work that into your universe mode or something like that.
Speaker 2 (58:58):
All you need is snoop Doug and yeah, you make
it happen.
Speaker 3 (59:02):
Yeah. I think it was either this year a couple
of years ago someone made the WWF New York, like
the when you're fighting in Times Square from one of
the the throw again, Like that's really cool. Like those
are things that you know they're not going to put
in modern day games, but people are using the engine
itself to build those things. So that has always or
(59:22):
has recently been one of the things that I've enjoyed.
But yeah, yeah, play for everything about this game was great.
The little the minor bugs that we've encountered don't negate
the overall experience by a long shot, But we want
to know what you guys think. What was your experience
with WWE two K twenty four. Excuse me, would you
(59:45):
give it a play forever or a future endeavor or
are you somewhere in the middle, And let us know
if you're looking forward to K twenty five as well.
But with that, John, are you ready to get into
this week's soft It's do all right? The soft lock
(01:00:15):
is the second one. A podcast or one of our
mega marks from our Patreon gives us a topic to discuss,
the little section to debate. It's a question of the
week with a fancy name. It's what we do here
this week. It comes from Soups Soups. The soupyman would
like us to would like us to put together our
(01:00:37):
dream showcase mode. What is your dream showcase mode? And
what matches would you include? The first thing that comes
to mind, which I do believe that they have done before,
is Legend.
Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Killer Randy Orton, Ooh, that's a good one.
Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
I like, I think that would be cool. Or what
was the event? Was it Raw one thousand that they
had all the legends come back and like do their
finishers to heath later over the course of like it
like the lead up into Row one thousand?
Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Yeah, I think it was like weeks leading up it
was like lead a yeah, APA.
Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
Like some somehow like see that's right. Yeah, I don't know,
they're like obviously there. It's like these one minor little
spots on a whole show. But like something like that
could be cool as a showcase, just like what if,
like if the whole showcase was what if? You know,
(01:01:39):
what if you know big wrestler from the eighties or
the nineties wrestled someone today in their prime. Like it's
almost like a kind of like a modern day All Stars.
I like it. What about you?
Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
All right? Given recent events and recent are innerships.
Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
Oh, I know what you're going to say.
Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
I want an AJ Styles Showcase mode now. I want
to go back to like Jerry Lynn and low Key
on pay per view. I want to go back to
Destination X against Christopher Daniels. I want that Christopher Daniels
Samoa Joe match, and then I want his debut.
Speaker 4 (01:02:21):
At the Rumble.
Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
I want Sena Sena. We could skip schin Skate because
that match sucked. It was good, it was just wrong place,
wrong time.
Speaker 3 (01:02:31):
Finn right, there's there's multiple fins.
Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
That first Finn match that wasn't supposed to happen. Someone
got sick, I remember, and it was like a fill
in inner promotional match, boneyard match.
Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
Oh yeah, that's got to be in there.
Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Yeah. And then I mean where do you end it though,
because he kinda hasn't done a lot since feuded with
La Knight and he's getting injured but he should be back.
Speaker 3 (01:02:57):
Yeah yeah he's back, but you do uh you could
do his run with uh Omas because he was champion,
that's true, that's true when he was with the maas
Dylan's friend Omas.
Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Yeah, I want I want you could even end it
at the Boneyard match.
Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
That's that's a great You get.
Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
Abyss in there. The Lockdown match, Oh my god, oh yeah,
that that's an ultimate X.
Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
It's not a competition, but I think you won the
softie man, like you're You're your pitch for that was
so much better. Like I love everything about that, Like
it hits on every note. It touches on the new partnership.
You're getting AJ throughout like the generations of his career.
You get short hair AJ all the way up to
long hair AJ.
Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
Now, yo, can we get short hair AJ officially in
the game now? Please? Someone?
Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
Yeah, and you would it would be short hair and
like trunks.
Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Yeah, oh oh that's cool.
Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
That's The more we talk about it, the more I'm
like shs or something like this.
Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
What if one of the DLC packs is like a
TNA pack, because you could do. But I'm gonna assume
like Jordan Grace.
Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
Is Joe Hendry, he's been popping up so much.
Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
But Jordan Grace is actually on the roster, so she
might already be DLC for later down the line.
Speaker 4 (01:04:20):
Yeah, I say, with machine guns, machine gun's machine guns
across the line pack Jordan Grace the machine Guns, Joe
Hendry Moose, he's on NXT Moose, Josh Alexander, I think
he left, but.
Speaker 3 (01:04:38):
That'd be great TNA tn A.
Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Who would have thought. That's a hell hell of a
pitch there, John, bring it, you know, Mark?
Speaker 3 (01:04:50):
That's great? All right? Well, next week on the podcast, guys,
we are gonna be playing King of Colisseum two. We
have done King of Colosseum D. We have done King
of Colosseumgreen. It is now time to do King of
Colosseum two and this is for the PlayStation two and
we hope that you will come and join us for
(01:05:12):
that game next episode. And as always, you can check
out all of the video content that we make over
on our YouTube channel, YouTube dot com Slash Game marks Pod.
I would also invite you to check out Johnny Clash's
Twitch streams over at twitch dot tv slash Johnny Clash
t tv. Also, if you would like to check out
(01:05:33):
the exclusive content that we are making alongside our good
buddy Dylan Possel, that is available over at Patreon dot
com slash pod Exchange. It's early access to shows. It
is show notes, ad free versions, and a whole lot
more if you wanted to pick up some pod Exchange merch,
that's over at pod exchange dot shop. That is all
(01:05:56):
things pot Exchange. We have a pro Wrestling te store
prorestlin Teas dot com. Slash Game Marx Pod. We are
available on all forms of social media at Game Marx
Pod and as always we'd really appreciate it if you
would like comment, subscribe and ring that notification bell. And
as always, if there is a product or service you
(01:06:16):
would like to advertise on this podcast, please reach out
to us over at Gamemarxpod at gmail dot com. Another
game in the books. Very excited to see what happens
with WWE two K twenty five. Whenever you're ready, John,
do that thing.
Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
Game over Marx game Marks Podcast, put them on the radar,
play a rare game, Sega Saturn, no game Shart, Johnny.
Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
And George work hard and they play hard future of
endeavored games and put them in the graveyard from the
deep dives in the class at the face I cannot
give more, and ask question of the Week, follow one
Twitch There's nothing that they won't play.
Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
Game Marks Podcast every single Monday
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