I don't like the fact that you can't use your created title like the other ones in that if you lose to the computer you still "have" the title. Pretty lame.

When are they coming out with a wrestling game for XBOX and/or 360.

There are two in the works... none are WWE games however. If they are going to continue the Raw/Wrestlemania series on the 360 I REALLY hope they make it work this time.

How's the GM mode in this one?

This game is great! I didn't get the last Smackdown v. Raw, so I can't compare. But I did have Here Comes the Pain, and there is a definite improvement in gameplay and all around "cool things." The Momentum and Stamina meters are well done and help make the match feel more realistic and adds challenge.

Presently, I'm in story mode, and while the voice acting eliminates any replayability to this mode, I have to say, the voice acting is for the most part great (at least for RAW, which is the only season I've played)! Also, the animations are incredible. I haven't even played any of the new features (i.e. Buried Alive, GM), but I will soon.

This all being said, it's still distinctively "Smackdown", so if you loathed the gameplay before, you probably will loathe it here too. This is probably the best it could get this generation, but on the PS3 they need to work on some issues:

(1) Gameplay. It's good but it's not nearly as complex or revolutionary as it should be.

(2) Commentary. If you can't do it right, nix it. It's terrible. JR and King, while great during cutscenes, are terrible during the match. They never talk about anything interesting, just "Wow, these superstars are talented." It's understandable that wrestling commentary is difficult to program because it isn't really play-by-play. But if it can't be done well, save time and money and move on to working on another feature.

(3) Season mode. While I'm loving it, there needs to be a way to make like a "franchise mode" like Madden that can continue for years and years. This will require a complete retooling of the concept and likely means that voice acting will not be feasible to program. Maybe this means we should have both "Season" and "Franchise" modes... Just an idea.

This all being said, this game is a lot of fun, and there's enough here to keep any wrestling junkie busy for a long time. Recommended if you in any way are a fan of the series.

Ugh, that's all I needed to know.

Thanks for the mini-review though!

Don't let that stop you from playing the best wrestling game in the Smackdown series.

Yeah this is the best of the series. they need more legends and an easier way to unlock JTSR.

Draft him in the 2nd year of GM mode. He'll be unlocked then.

I thought that was a just a false rumor, does it actually work?

I haven't tried it yet, but heard from several people it does work.

uhhh... were these people on the internet? DTA, DTA!

yeah any confirmation how to get JTSR would be great

A friend told me, I'll have to ask him exactly what he did in detail. Some people on Gamefaqs claim it works, too, but they are exactly what I'd call credible.

who is JTSR

Jake The Snake Roberts.

Jake the Snake Roberts

Ok, he said he did it with the PSP, so maybe the draft him thing was just a rumor after all. That sucks.

Only thing is, is that it's NOT OUT YET on the PSP!

DTA! DTA! DTA!

I can squash the rumor about legends in the end of year draft on GM Mode. Here are the rules for the year-end draft (I hope I'm not spoiling anything here, I would have liked to know my options before I went in).

Whichever brand "wins" the year, based on total fans after Wrestlemania, you get to protect one additional person from the 'random' draft and select your third draft pick manually. I played as RAW and won, but only by about 150,000 fans, which is not much after the whole season. Just for context, when I ran my PPVs I could expect anywhere from 250,000 to 1.1 million fans to jump. So I protected Shawn Michaels (at a 91 popularity rating) and my champion Triple H could not be drafted. Smackdown's champion was JBL so he couldn't be drafted.

Here's where the suck comes in. The 'random' 3 wrestlers drafted FROM my Raw crew to Smackdown were Randy Orton (popularity 90), John Cena (popularity 93), and Undertaker (popularity 87). And who did I get in return? Rob Van Dam (popularity 72) and F'N Heidenreich (popularity 52!). With my third manual pick I chose Kurt Angle (popularity 96). Thank God I won the year or it seems like my third 'random' pick could have been even worse than Heidenreich. So I lost three of my top 5 stars in return for one. Going into year 2 I'm down 2 top stars and wrecked all my rivalries.

I have no idea how truly 'random' those picks were, but I certainly got screwed so bad I'm not sure how excited I am to go into year 2. But there were NO legends to be drafted, and you only get to select your one pick if you win the year.

On a different note, I finally unlocked the buried alive mode. There FREAKING HAS to be a something I'm not doing when I'm supposed to hit the R Analog Stick to close the casket. I truthfully must have tried to close that casket 75 times before I finally won. The match was 58 minutes and I almost threw the damn system across the room. Does anybody know what we are supposed to do on the R stick when closing that casket? That drove me absolutely nuts.

To close the casket just press down on the right stick. If the computer isnt weak enough they will block it every time. Or you can do a finsher into the casket which ends the match immediately. Get a stored finisher, whip them into the casket then press L1 + L2.

Man, I wish I would have asked that before last night. I must have hit the Undertaker with 20 finishers and had his entire body in red, except his arms that were in yellow. Thanks a lot for the response, that shouldn't be too bad now.

Wow, I didn't know that. So he must be full of shit then

Yeah, the PSP version has a shipping date of Dec 15th.

I'm sorry, this game is still poor. The load times associated with trying to create your own wrestler made me want to cut my wrists open. The CAW here has LOTS of great options but the pre-Raw vs. Smackdown CAW is just better overall in terms of functionality. Since the gameplay will always suck to me it comes down to being able to create my friends and I in CAW mode and let the CPU play out matches. Oh well. Skip it.

Obviously to each his own, but as long as you've played anything in the Smackdown series before, it feels like a great addition to the series in my opinion. If you enjoy the CAW function (I haven't gone through the CAW section yet, so I can't speak to the load times) and enjoy watching the CPU play out matches, I would highly recommend the GM Mode. I am not 100% sure, but I thought I heard that you could use CAW wrestlers in GM Mode. GM Mode lets you book your own matches and actually put the created wrestlers in feuds for titles and stuff like that. You can also watch individual matches on the card, so you could watch only your matches if you wanted to. GM Mode seems to be even more devisive with people though, it's text based throughout unless you wanted to play or watch any of the matches.