WWE 2K17 On Solid Ground, Has Room to Grow
 

Wrestling video games have an interesting history. Much like real-life WWE where there is a segment of fans who insist that the "good ol’ days" of wrestling passed us by decades ago, there are many fans of this genre who insist that the last great wrestling game released was WWF No Mercy for the Nintendo 64. No Mercy was no doubt a great game, but those who ignore the strides wrestling games have made since 2K Sports took over are missing out.

I’ve written before how I took a long break from the franchise. For me, the 2000s simply were not fun from a gameplay standpoint. I took a stab at WWE 12 but left feeling underwhelmed. WWE 2K17, on the other hand, feels like a whole new ballgame. The graphics are much improved along with smoother animations. However, as far as video games have come, it’s still tricky to nail down human animation so that it comes across as natural. Wrestling games have long been one of the worst offenders in this department, but 2K17 definitely has a more natural feel to all of the movements.


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I agree that this series has made some great strides over the years. I am having a lot of fun playing this game this year. However, this game has been an absolutely buggy mess since release. With every patch they release to fix one thing I feel like it breaks another. Some of the biggest offenders this year are the interference glitch on mid match run ins where your computer opponent will continue to stay in the ring after interfering. Sometimes even attacking the superstar they came down to help. Or the fact that some moves, specifically running finishers simply do not work. Or how about the fact that you can no longer assign a tag team finisher to a stable without having to do an annoying work around in universe mode (This was working fine at release, but the patch seems to have broken this).

To be honest I think 2K would be wise to take a page out of THQ's book before these games became yearly releases. Do a two year development cycle which will allow them proper time to test an iron out bugs before release. Unfortunately I do not feel this is a realistic option TBH, because I do not feel like this series would have the budget to survive without a yearly release. I am having fun playing this game this year. In fact I like this game. I just cant help but get a weird feeling that I am playing a beta version of series that is now in its third iteration on this gen consoles.

This one of the least impressive sports games series of this generation....NBA 2k, Madden, Fifa and other games are huge leaps over their PS3/360 counterparts, while WWE feels like just a "graphical bump."

The Milestone Racing games (WRC, Moto GP, MXGP) are guilty of this as well.

I just upgraded to a PS4 on Black Friday and so my perspective on this is very fresh.

Don't get me wrong I like the game...but I don't love it I I thought after 3 or 4 years that 2k would've done more with this title but as it stands it hard to see much difference from when it was under the control of THQ

Great write-up. I agree that the game has made strides, but unfortunately it once again failed to hold my interest for very long. I had a lot of fun with it for about a month, then it got shelved. I recently sold it on eBay for $30, so I feel I got my money's worth. I may get the itch to play it again around WrestleMania season. Might try to find it on the cheap.

I think my biggest issue with the series in general is the game is pretty much out of date on release day. I get they have to cut off the rosters at some point but I would like to see at least one roster update halfway through the cycle. I don't think that's asking too much. I would also like to see alternate attire's. Not really sure why this is so hard. Also there needs to be a way to upload music for caw's.

And please stop nickel and dimeing us for every little thing. I mean $5 for the accelerator, and another $5 for more moves? Come on. And I won't even go into charging for wrestlers that should be in the game from the start.

Re: WWE 2K17 On Solid Ground, Has Room to Grow
 

Agree completely. At the very least there should be a day 1 roster update that brings the game current to release day. That's attires, entrance music and everything. Anything after that I'm cool with a charge. It's not like they are unaware of WWE happenings after the roster cutoff date. I don't even follow WWE much these days but even I notice how outdated some wrestlers are. Change that and give us a way to add custom tracks (The Show does so it can be done) and just keep building on what they have and I could see myself buying every year. I literally only got this years game for Goldberg and Kerr Von Erich.

Re: WWE 2K17 On Solid Ground, Has Room to Grow
 

Release all DLC at launch and I'll play it more. Until then, meh!

I know the 2k basketball guys are active on OS but are the 2k wrestling guys active on here?