Maxflier

I haven't played one of these games since the PS2 days, so I am having a blast with this one. Gonna take me a while to get all the controls down, though. Played several ladder matches and never managed to win one but had fun trying. I love the way they stagger their way up the ladder when they have been beaten to hell and back during the match.

Kedrix

And I assume you are removing the tops first? That would be a strange removal considering regular tables are still around.

TheKing

You can still use the announce tables, and you can still put your opponents on them and through them. You just can't stand on them.

I'm guessing it was probably too difficult to program in the new physics system so it was left out.

stingermck

Damn, last year was already limited enough with the layers.

The Dude

Picked this up on Thursday and have been having a blast with it thus far. The WWE Universe mode is pretty spectacular; downloaded a bunch of older guys from online and they've already developed enemies and are moving towards title shots. My only (minor) gripe thus far is that since all of the wrestlers are on one screen (as opposed to being able to put different factions on different screens ala 'No Mercy' form the N64), it's a little bit of a pain to find specific guys sometime.

Tarantino

They're in alphabetical order.

The Dude

Ha! Never even noticed, kept trying to look at faces. Thanks for that.

Maxflier

What are you doing to move toward title shots?
I can't even get an automatic appearance on Raw. I have to put my character (RVD) in a match myself every week and despite winning every match so far (including a 3-way win over Cena and Orton), I am not even ranked in the top 10 contenders for either belt.
Or is this mode not really meant to be a single character mode and more for people who want to use all the different characters?

Tarantino

If you create your own match, it doesn't go towards the rankings.

ViewAskewbian

Blood in this game isn't as cool as it was in the last game but I suppose we are lucky to at least have it.

nodeerforamonth

I was going to say the same thing, but then I had a really long match w/ someone I had bloodied up. His face was almost a crimson mask! And my knuckles and chest were red w/ his blood.

I think they actually improved the blood this time around. But it just takes some work (and a ton of headshots).

ViewAskewbian

Yeah, was coming to post that. I just did the Money in the Bank for Christians RTW and man was it hard but worth it. Some of the spots were brutal. The best moment came when I laid a ladder across the ring steps and hit the Kill Switch from the top onto the setup!

Despit a few hiccups, this game kicks ass.

Mikael79

I got the game last night and went through story mode with Chris Jericho. The odd thing is that while I was in a match, some of the grunts and screams from Jericho were obviously from a Diva (female voice). Funny and annoying at the same time.

TheKing

I know I'm answering this a little late, but having played this for a while now I'll give my insight.

If you're using RVD, you have to make sure he is on the Raw or SmackDown brand in order for him to be used automatically in Universe. So if you want RVD to start showing up on Raw, make sure he's on the Raw brand (He's a Free Agent by default).

After that, you can start putting him in matches, and eventually you'll start showing up on Superstars or Raw. If you make a tag team you might have a tag match on SmackDown.

Beyond that, Universe can be random in who it decides it wants to push. I made a team of two CAWs (Myself and a friend). We dominated the tag division, but we couldn't really move up in the rankings all that much. After a few months, my partner shows up in the rankings for the World Heavyweight Championship despite having done no singles matches. He ranks up pretty high and actually gets put into a Championship Scramble match at Night OF Champions, in which he comes out victorious. My CAW still isn't ranked anywhere.

On the following SmackDown, I have a singles match, and my partner comes out to help me...only to stab me in the back and turn heel. I still win the match, but the team is disbanded, and my guy still can't get ranked. Eventually I finally show up on the IC title board, and at the Royal Rumble I'm the #1 contender for the belt.

My old partner lost his title after a month, but got it back at TLC. He stayed at the top of the rankings throughout, even though I stopped playing his matches (I even lost to him at TLC as Edge in a TLC match).

So long story short, guys will get used if they're on the roster, and will rank up if they win against other top guys.

Maxflier

Thanks for that TheKing. I did eventually end up figuring out that I needed to designate him to Raw and that did the trick.
Anyone think the game is way too easy? Ladder matches can be a challenge (haven't tried any other specialty matches yet), but regular matches are way too easy unless there is interference. I got a US title match at a PPV and flat out squashed the guy, he got maybe 2 moves in and I beat him in like a minute with just a suplex that I rolled into a pin. Didn't even need to 5 star frog splash him.
Regardless though, this game is pretty damn awesome, $60 WELL spent.

TheKing

What difficulty do you play at?

The computer is never that hard to beat, regardless of the difficulty, but if you play at Legend, you do have to work at it to beat them unless you're exploiting the pinning glitch. There is a problem with 2011 where the computer doesn't kick out of pins, especially early in the match. Oddly as the match goes on the computer kicks out of pins more, and will even reverse them on you.

I try and play the matches with a realistic pace to avoid pinning issues, and I cancel pins just to keep the match going at times. Hopefully the patch will address the pinning issues.

Ladder matches can be very frustrating, even surprising. You can dominate, set everything up for you to be ready to pull down, and then a CPU guy can sneak in there, get the last grab and win.

If tables matches go long, you can lose one of those too just by letting the CPU get a bit of offense or a reversal on you.

Hell In A Cell matches are tough too. For me, the AI seems to be harder in those matches, and if you go up top they tend to be read good at tossing off or putting you through the top.

Maxflier

Ok, I didn't know there were different diffuculty settings. I will look into that.

Maxflier

Even better, it looks like it will be just $30 well spent since BB will have this for 30 bucks on BF.

Goldblum

Maxflier

They actually only have the 360 version listed for BF, so I'm not if the PS3 will be on sale. I can't imagine they wouldn't have both on sale though.

TheKing

Actually the ad specifically says price valid on X360 only, while it says PS3 only for Modern Warfare 2. So no price matching for me...

Still, nice to know the Best Buy ad is out in the wild...