Picked it up form my local indy shop, mainly cos it was payday and i felt like wasting some money.
Now im a big wrestling game fan and i tend to stay away from the American releases as it all graphics with little though going into the mechines of how wrestling plays out. Now back to LoW3, i thought i would give it a chance (if Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior and ANDY FREAKING KAUFMAN inthe game its a must buy), from what i read so far the controls have changed from the almost 3D fighter controls/gameplay of the first 2 games, so gone is the multiple grapples positions, gone are the quick grapple commands(like up,left,down X+A) and gone are the stupid multi button command finishers, and this makes a big change to the gamplay, it gives LoW the simplicity it always needed, wrestling games and Mortal Combat like move commands do not belong together.
Instead we get Strike, Grapple, Quick-Throw and block/counter. Strike has 3 levels of damage, grapple is no mercy style grapple (so no timed based KoC or Firepro style), quick throw, does as it say's but to stop abuses, it can be easily countered. Block, counters everything including counters from the opponent. Multi-combo throws are done by hitting quick-throw(submission) or strike(pin) when a quick throw, hits the floor. Finishers are still connected to the 'Spirit' metre, move the right stick in the right postion to activite the Finisher.
Animation it still, so-so just like the other games but at least there's been an inprovement, lots more animation for damage or getting hit by different strike, but now and then you'll spot a dodgy animation jerk. Graphics are really good, better then AllStars3 and KoC, blood effect are good, but it has that motion blure to it that can be annoying.
Sound, now this where it starts to faulter, while the commentary from the WcW Nitro crew(Tony, Bobby & Mike) and the crowd sound is good, the Wrestlers grunts and pain noises are none existent, on the smack noise of a strike and the thud of the canvas, it kind of takes the fun out of smack the crap out of Hulk Hogan.
The Bugs, yes there back just like every sodding LoW wrestling game, i knew i would be taking a chance but is it almost gameplay destroying and how they let it slip through is sickening. Now i haven't tried the custom sound track yet(but thats bound to be glitched to hell), the problem is with the Counter of Counter inthe gameplay. Say i 'Jake the Snake' grappled 'hogan'(both in a weakened state animation walk) and when for suplex, not Hogan could counter this into his own move, but i could counter it back and then it would happen, somehow i would 'slip'/'Slide' out of the throw being done on me and land perfectly fine next to hogan still continuing the move without me in it i was like
, and he can't be hit out of the animation either, now i haven't spotted this in 4v4 games yet but in 1v1 it happened 5 times.
No idea how bad it gets as i only had 4-5 matches in normal 1v1 to get ahang of the controls, so i haven't touched ladder or tables matches or CAW mode, i just hope they're not bugged to.
So far, its no KoC in terms depth of wrestling style but the change to Aki style wrestling gamplay setup is a move for the better even with the bug's is easily better recent american games like RaW, smackdown or wrestlemania
Now im a big wrestling game fan and i tend to stay away from the American releases as it all graphics with little though going into the mechines of how wrestling plays out. Now back to LoW3, i thought i would give it a chance (if Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior and ANDY FREAKING KAUFMAN inthe game its a must buy), from what i read so far the controls have changed from the almost 3D fighter controls/gameplay of the first 2 games, so gone is the multiple grapples positions, gone are the quick grapple commands(like up,left,down X+A) and gone are the stupid multi button command finishers, and this makes a big change to the gamplay, it gives LoW the simplicity it always needed, wrestling games and Mortal Combat like move commands do not belong together.
Instead we get Strike, Grapple, Quick-Throw and block/counter. Strike has 3 levels of damage, grapple is no mercy style grapple (so no timed based KoC or Firepro style), quick throw, does as it say's but to stop abuses, it can be easily countered. Block, counters everything including counters from the opponent. Multi-combo throws are done by hitting quick-throw(submission) or strike(pin) when a quick throw, hits the floor. Finishers are still connected to the 'Spirit' metre, move the right stick in the right postion to activite the Finisher.
Animation it still, so-so just like the other games but at least there's been an inprovement, lots more animation for damage or getting hit by different strike, but now and then you'll spot a dodgy animation jerk. Graphics are really good, better then AllStars3 and KoC, blood effect are good, but it has that motion blure to it that can be annoying.
Sound, now this where it starts to faulter, while the commentary from the WcW Nitro crew(Tony, Bobby & Mike) and the crowd sound is good, the Wrestlers grunts and pain noises are none existent, on the smack noise of a strike and the thud of the canvas, it kind of takes the fun out of smack the crap out of Hulk Hogan.
The Bugs, yes there back just like every sodding LoW wrestling game, i knew i would be taking a chance but is it almost gameplay destroying and how they let it slip through is sickening. Now i haven't tried the custom sound track yet(but thats bound to be glitched to hell), the problem is with the Counter of Counter inthe gameplay. Say i 'Jake the Snake' grappled 'hogan'(both in a weakened state animation walk) and when for suplex, not Hogan could counter this into his own move, but i could counter it back and then it would happen, somehow i would 'slip'/'Slide' out of the throw being done on me and land perfectly fine next to hogan still continuing the move without me in it i was like
, and he can't be hit out of the animation either, now i haven't spotted this in 4v4 games yet but in 1v1 it happened 5 times.No idea how bad it gets as i only had 4-5 matches in normal 1v1 to get ahang of the controls, so i haven't touched ladder or tables matches or CAW mode, i just hope they're not bugged to.
So far, its no KoC in terms depth of wrestling style but the change to Aki style wrestling gamplay setup is a move for the better even with the bug's is easily better recent american games like RaW, smackdown or wrestlemania
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