Part one of this blurb can be found
HERE
After being awakened by the fire alarm I got dressed only to find the hotel room I was staying in was blacked out. I heard the sounds of a woman trapped inside the elevator as I moved through the hall way trying to find the stairs. Not the best start to
THQ's
WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 preview event. After finding my way down stairs and meeting up with the rest of the journalists gathered from across the US and Canada the PR ladies from
THQ walked us and our luggage down the street to the
THQ corporate headquarters. Unfortunately there weren't any WWE superstars to greet us at the door. We were guided to the company board room and were treated to a light breakfast before the presentation. Later next week Chuck should be posting the recording from the presentation. The general impression I got from the presentation was that the features of the game, not the wrestlers, or the controls, or graphics are the real highlight of
SmackDown vs. Raw '09. There will be lots of different event types to choose from including the ever popular cage match, the grueling ladder match, and something new called inferno match. After the hour presentation there was more food and some hands on time with the game. The version of the game they had set up in the hallway on multiple consoles didn't look good and was filled with bugs, but that's because it wasn't anything close to the finished build we were playing that day. I had a lot of fun with the Wii version, the controls were easy to grasp and it was surprisingly fun to shake the Wiimote and watch the character on the screen punch the other guy. Something dissapointing was in the Xbox 360 version recovery from a knock down blow was still governed by rapid fire button presses instead of something less frustrating. There was no way in the world that actually smashing all the buttons on the controller would result in a faster recovery time. So in the end I was pounding the controller with an open palm in frustration as my opponent climbed on top of the turnbuckle to finish me off. I didn't have a lot of free time with the game because I was to leave
THQ about an hour after the presentation was over. I was able to get in a short interview (also look for that next week) before being whisked away back to Columbus.
In the end I was left wanting and I didn't get to play the game nearly as much as I wanted to. Good thing
THQ sent me home with a preview build. So until next time...
