Welcome to Wrestling Gamers United Newsletter #361

1) Gameplay Videos
2) Get well soon, Bob
3) Legends of Wrestlemania
4) Dickie Retires
5) Namco pulls Dick Move of the Year!


1) Gameplay Videos
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I've been capturing Uprising gameplay video all this week that I will post shortly but until then here is a quick clip showing us testing the weapon striking mechanics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN-dmnDd-Xs

I just realized this is probably the first video showing PWX actually running on someone's computer. Cool!

In the course of capturing some video I've also gone back to early builds and prototypes to capture bugs and glitches for a "bug reel". You'll laugh your ass off at some of the stupid glitches we've had to iron out. Hey Darrell, remember Jerry the Node?


2) Get well soon, Bob
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A quick get-well-soon to a PWX supporter who recently had to undergo emergency amputation. We're all pulling for you, Bob! I had a meeting booked with Bob and when he canceled due to the emergency surgery he actually apologized to me for the inconvenience! Now that's an old school tough guy.


3) Legends of Wrestlemania
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I'm looking forward to a Yukes game. Guilty! This new Legends of Wrestlemania is looking to be a decent shot of fun. My only gripe, ironically, is that I wish it was more 'arcadey". I'd love to see this become an updated Wrestlefest as opposed to Smackdown-lite. If I want to play a slow plodding sim I'll dust off King of Colosseum. I can understand where maybe Yukes thought they needed to straddle the fence a bit in terms of realism vs. fun factor but for this game I think they played it a bit too safe. Not that I want Fatalities or anything but in this case maybe a little frantic button mashing wouldn't be a bad thing.

Have you seen the gameplay yet? Check it out:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/45378.html


4) Dickie Retires
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Mat Dickie has officially retired from game development according to an official release on his website. Over the course of his indy career he single handedly developed a ton of 2D and 3D wrestling games for PC as well as other genres. Always controversial, Mat had more than his share of haters and I have to admit that more than once I chuckled at some of the things he said.
But I have to tip my hat to the guy for his accomplishments. Be they what they may, he got shit done. And while many gamers can point out everything wrong or poorly done with his games the fact remains that he got his games DONE.

Laugh at him if you want to (I have), but before you talk shit about his games...show me yours.

http://www.mdickie.com/



5) Namco pulls Dick Move of the Year!
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Woah. So imagine your a game developer and you get a chance to work on a remake of a classic game like Splatterhouse. Cool huh? Now imagine the game is almost finished and one day a U-haul pulls up to your studio. Men walk into your studio and without warning start unplugging all of your equipment and proceed to load it all into the U-haul. Servers, computers, concept art, design documents, everything! Your Splatterhouse project is being taken away from you to be given to another developer. Tough luck.

That's what Namco did recently to Splatterhouse developers, Bottlerocket. Why? Who knows. But people there are plenty pissed about it:

http://kotaku.com/5148824/rumor-namco-yanks-splatterhouse-from-bottlerocket

Now I'm sure there is another side to this story and Namco had to have its reasons. But still...harsh.


In the meantime and in between time, that's it, another edition of Wrestling Gamers United.

Thank you for your support,
Dave Wishnowski

Mdickie's final wrestling game had three somewhat unique and desirable gameplay elements.

1) The fact it takes a while for tired wrestlers to get to their feet, having to climb slowly to their knees before they're able to fight.
2) The ability to crawl on the mat, thereby allowing one to go for a cover without having to stand up arbitrarily beforehand.
3) The ability to make quick steps towards and away from the opponent, ideal for quicker wrestlers.

Other than those things, which I'd like to see administered in other games, I can't really say much for his contributions, aside the sheer amount of personal work he put into them. Federation Online 2001 remains one of my -former- favourite games, but nowadays I feel a lot of things could have been done to make his games have a greater simulation feel when you're actually in the ring. He has computing abilities far in advance of my own, but I don't see how this warrants me to withhold all critique of his labours.

Much like previous games which have been abbreviated to the same three letters, LoW appears too much of an arcade game for my personal tastes. The desire to recreate older matches doesn't entail the desire to recreate older gameplay. I've seen some nice quick grappling and chain wrestling action in some footage, but there appears much that'll mar it as well.

[quote][cite] action937:[/cite]
M. Dickie's wrestling games suck. Sorry. Everyone knows it. Mine might too, but I don't consider it an achievement just because he made them. I can make a pizza and if it tastes like crap, nobody's going to pat me on the back just because I made it myself. Especially if I tell people that I'm the best pizza maker in the world.[/quote]

Good Point! You hit the nail right on the head!

II'm fully prepared to be the first to say that Homebrew Wrestling is absolute crap. But I'm always striving to make it better and always willing to listen to critiques on how to make it better. Mat son the other hand speaks of himself and says "I'm an indy wrestling game maker God and no wrestling game matches what I have done"
Ok maybe not verbatum, but this is...
"For the record, I was every bit as talented as I purported to be. Try to follow in my footsteps some time and you'll understand where I was coming from."

I don't like his games and I can list many reasons why. And based on what I've read about him and by him, same goes for Mat himself. I'd rather play WWF Superstars for gameboy than any of his wrestling games.