WMMA 2 Demo - Post First Thoughts

BlizzardVeers · #1 04-03-2009, 10:23 AM

So, I've decided to review the demo - after playing it for a few days straight now. I have to admit, that I had a knee-jerk reaction to the game initially. I thought to myself, "This is nothing like the original. I'm not very happy." But, as I said, that's a knee-jerk reaction. I never really know how I actually feel about something until I've given it a good turn over. For this, I'm going to go feature by feature, and click by click on my thoughts on it.

Graphics: I could do without them, I'm not really a big fan of the default graphics interface. I think they look cartoonish, blocky, and I think they lack the professionalism of the first game. They're hard on my eyes, and just not what I expected at all. I opted out for a less abrasive graphics scheme, the pure black one that you can download here (http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum...ad.php?t=39528) Also, FINisher's mod was nice as well - but it didn't seem as clean to me as the pure black. I think I'm just a stickler for black.

Features: Starting a new game now. B L A H! That'll work. Quick load for the database. I don't want to be a cat. I'll pick -- GAMMA. Fezzik is still number one, how fantastic.

When I first loaded the opening screen I wasn't sure how I would adjust to it. I saw, "News, Results, Fighter Rankings, Promotion Rankings, Awards, Hall of Fame, and World Diary." While, I thought this made a lot of sense when I opened it up - everything on page. After playing WMMA constantly for 5 months straight at one point, I was very used to the previous setup. In other-words, I clicked Game World, and Media Hub more than once looking for something that was under News.

Clicking on the 'Mail and Decisions' box just made me blink. What happened to the small pop-up that worked so well before? It just seems somewhat pointless to me to have it like that. It's not going to affect me too badly, but it surprised me the first time I opened it up.

Did I mention that I like having the 'Results' on a single page that I can look at, instead of having to go through promotion after promotion to find their results? Don't think I did. That was a very nice feature for me, and I was happy to have access to it. I just said something bad, so I thought I should probably extol the virtues of the simplicity that was intended on the News screen. It's very useful, and makes the Blurcat website mean something! I know, terrible, isn't it?

Now that I've wandered through the News Page, lets skip to something else. Like, my Office. So, I have an assistant that's not just a PDA now? I'm going to have to make her dress a little more appropriately for the office in the future. Having an unbuttoned shirt on that many areas is just not acceptable. The Assistant feature is pretty much the same as it was in the old game, which is good news, since that was a very useful feature.

Email - Oh. Yeah, same thing. Still 'argh' on my eyes. Decisions as well.

User Profile - the biggest problem I had with this in the old game was that it was hard for the game to seeming differentiate between the quality of the matches. I hope this has been fixed, since as soon as I got a 'Fantastic' rating for a fight in the previous version, it was generally my 'best' fight - EVAR. I like the additions of 'Worst Ever Fight', but shouldn't it be Worst Fight Ever? Maybe that's just me, but that just sounds somewhat odd. Also, my guy looks like a dork.

User Log - I believe it's pretty much the same as it was in the old game. If it is, I'll still probably never use it. It's only useful to have to see who you recently hired, if you've forgotten. Which has happened to me more than once, so I suppose it is useful, but not often.

Shortlist - Improved? Yes. Quite. Very nice that it allows you to keep tabs on the fighters, and actually keep tabs on them without having to go look for them.

Roster - I'll save this for when I go searching for fighters. Though, the ability to switch weight-classes so much easier? Is fantastic, I love this.

Titles - It does not seem like this particular section has changed much at all. I wouldn't mind being able to create a title specifically for tournaments, but that's a minor complaint, and I can technically already do that. Just have to use my imagination.

Rankings - I like that this is actually in the open in the Office screen. There's really not much to be said about it, since the rankings system, nor the actual implementation are anything to complain about. It was just nice to have it right there, instead of having to find the button when looking for fights. Yes, I just bashed the way the original WMMA did something.

Roster Analysis – I think this is actually a very good feature. I like knowing what fighters I have are capable of doing what. When I finally get into the real game, I can honestly say that this feature will come in handy while booking small television shows and booking PPVs at the same time. It lets me know who I need to shove in the main event, and who I can have headlining the crappy shows. A tweak I always had with the original version was that it expected top quality shows from me no matter what sort of show it was. I also had an issue with the way fights were graded, but I'll get into that later. This feature is very /very/ helpful, and I wish I had it in the original.

Unavailable Fighters – I don't know that this feature is totally useful. It's nice to have, but it seems somewhat pointless when you can just turn off fighters that are injured in the booking screen. Though, it is nice to be able to click this and see that the fighter you just used got their leg broken – without having to click on their profile and go, “WTF? YOU WERE GOING TO BE MY CHAMPION!”

Booking Meeting – This feature has been improved significantly. I like that it it gives you the 'basic' value of the fighter. I like that it tells you where the fighter's career is heading (though that was in the fighter profile screen originally.) This was a good feature originally, and is better now.

Popularity – Simple. Well done. Not much to say about it.

Rules – I like that I can make ZST if I wanted to. I don't know why I'd want to, but I can make ZST. I can also make RINGS. Very nice. The rules have slight changes to them, but I'd still like a little more customization. Soccer kicks? Headbutts? Groin strikes? I want the ability to run a full out 'BROOTAL' promotion. I want fans to be turned off by how violent my product is, and I'd like it if fighters rejected working in my promotion because of certain rules. That might be sadistic, but it would be fun and challenging.

Weight Class – This is slightly improved. I don't think it's worth noting the improvements, because this feature was always done right. I did not see a need to change it too much, but I can see where the 'target amount' would work for AI promotions.

History – It never changes.

Finances – This isn't really changed, and that's okay. It was fine how it was.

Contracts – Wait. A screen for contracts? Nice. It works like an Excel sheet no less? Double nice. The only complaint I have with this feature is that you can't make the 'Remaining' on either of the sheets organize. I don't know why, maybe it's because I haven't patched my game.

Corporate Relationships – A completely new feature to the WMMA series (it's a series now, right?) Though, I likely won't get to play with this feature very much, given that it's a demo and no one is in any real trouble. It looks like a solid feature, with the ability to takeover other promotions, send fighters there, close the promotions, and review how those promotions are doing and how your fighters are doing there. I'm not sure why the ability to 'co-promote' wasn't added, maybe it wasn't feasible or something. In either-case, this is another feature that I really wished I'd had in the original.

Resign – Yourself to defeat. You know you want to. With that, that's the end of The Office section. Which is a huge bulk of the game. Yes, I know, I didn't get into 'Schedule'. That's a big part of the game too, I know. I know. I KNOW. Anyway. I will glance over that separately. Clicking.. Companies now.

Companies – Really. There's not a whole lot that has been changed in this feature. Actually, there's nothing that has been changed at all as far as I can tell. Which is a good thing. If you've played WMMA, then you know what this feature is about. If not, well, the simple answer to the question is that – this is the section where you can glance over the basic details of other promotions (and your own.) You can see who is running the promotion, the promotions popularity, their rankings, their champions, their history, and most important of all who they've got slaving for them. Next up --- camps.

Camps – Here. I have a complaint. WHY IS CAMPS BEFORE FIGHTERS?! That confused me when I initially played. I was so used to having fighters right /after/ promotions, that it actually bothered me a little bit emotionally. I was sad. Button position aside, this is an improved feature for sure. You've got people that are long term members of groups, people that are just visiting, and people that are lifetime members of teams. The amount of camps added into the game are very nice as well. It also seems that camps have a much larger effect on fighters now. Fighters can also jump from camp to camp, picking up skills from different groups as they feel they need to. This is very well done, and will likely add some more randomization to the longterm games when all the heroes have died. Also, Way of the Crane's Beak? Really?

Characters – When I first clicked on this, I wasn't really sure what to expect given the screen shots. However, after seeing it properly? I wasn't terribly bothered by it. It's nice to have the fighter's stats right there in-front of you. Reputation, Performance, Name Value, Employer, Record, Style, etc? It's very nice. It's far easier to glance through and find the sort of fighters you're looking for. Speaking of 'looking for'. Let's roll through the search, eh?

Search - This feature has apparently been tamed down to a minimum number of features. Which I am completely alright with. I like the fact that the search feature also switches between variables that it is supposed to look for as you switch through different types of hires. I like that I can look for someone with a 'certain amount of fights' as opposed to inexperienced, experienced, etc. I think however, the win ratio feature might be slightly messed up. When I looked for fighters with a 100% win ratio, well, I still got every single fighter in the roster. This is likely a problem with their being /zero/ fights in the history – so no one has any sort of flaws in their ratio at all. Might want to have that tweaked slightly? (Unless of course it already is.) The search feature overall however, in every section of the game, has been made considerably better. It's usefulness will likely become much more apparent as the game goes on.

Fighter Profiles – I picked, Anderson 'Flash' Desailly. In my ALPHA-1 dynasty where I played till 2012 – he was an Anderson Silva figure for me named Anderson Rua. Haha. Inventive, I know. Anyhow, let's run down his profile here. Odd, there's no little fighter 'skill' here, I'll miss that – I enjoyed reading them. All of the things from the character screen are here, plus a small description of who the fighter is. Let's mess with current status first. Tells you about the fighter's career level, interesting place to put that. His weight choices, his current momentum, whether or not he has a fight scheduled, and his camp association. All in all, this feature has not changed much, which I am perfectly okay with. A timeline of notable injures though? That's a nice feature to have.

Scouting now. Hm. I don't like the belts, and I don't really think I like the names for the various sections. I swapped out the belts for – a grading scale. There, that makes me happier. Everything looks a little less confusing as well. Okay, I'm okay with this now. Details. Oh. Details indeed. I suppose I'm one of the few people that will miss the long drawn out descriptions from the original. These are nice to have, though, and much easier for me to gauge where the fighter is if I mix this with the scouting screen. Overall, this will likely be an improvement when you're trying to build a fighter up.

Name value, is simple like it was for the promotions. I am very cool with that. Fight history is lacking anything all! Oh. Wait, no, just history. The most notable thing here is the search feature, which while I will probably never use it, it is happy making. It allows you to pick from promotions, opponents (though it should look at who's in the history and limit itself to that), years, the results, method, and minimum/maximum ratings of the fights to glance through them. I like. Anyway there are Achievements, Employment, and Relationships too. This equates to, title reigns, who he's contracted with, and who he's friends with. That's pretty much all. Oh, and I will hire you Mr. Desailly, oh. I can't. Freaking KDMFC. Okay, Felix Mattherson Jr then.

TV Shows – Hm. There is a show named Test run by ALPHA-1, I think I'll name it SmackDown! later when I take over their company. In all seriousness, there's really nothing to this feature. It just lets you know what television shows you have active, what their time slot is, how many episodes are left, how much money you're making from it and how much money is going to your big TV boss, and what your ratings are. In other-words, it's a pretty good reminder section. You'll be clicking on it often. It also tells you about competitors shows, but you don't care about that.

TV Stations – Okay, this feature hasn't changed a whole lot – except for being easier to navigate. It tells you the stations stance on MMA, their patience with crappy ratings, how big they are, and what they tend to cater to. Oh, and their name. This section also allows you to create new shows, I probably should have mentioned that first. For those of you wondering, I'll try to hire some people, and start a new show in a little bit. I'll put in for negotiations with The Pop! Network for later though.

PPV Carriers – I wonder what they do. Anyway, I put in for a negotiation with American Option to see where that goes.

Game World – Ah. The world economy is in a tizzy of dump. Wait, Japan has a weak economy? In 1999? Seriously? Eh. American economy in decline --- in 1999? No. Mexico's economy is strong?! WHAT KIND OF CRAZY WORLD IS THIS?! World history has chan-- oh wait. It's a game. I forgot. Ahaha – yeah. Though, seriously, glance at View Regions and you'll see why this is a useful feature. It tells you about everything you need to know about whether a region would be receptive to you coming in at that time or not. Biases, how strong the history of martial arts is there, and various other fun things. The World Diary is nice too, but I think the News section makes it a moot thing.

Options – Auto Save, Regeneration, Fast Advance, Smart Booking, Debut Records, Fighter Display, Belt Display, Commentary? This is all very nice. Add the Remote Assistance button? Double nice. I can still cheat, triple nice!

That's it for the actual 'help' features. Everything there is just padding for the real meat of the game, the match making engine. Yes, it is the meat, and everything else is not really necessary. I'm going to schedule an event now, and I think it will be 20 fights long! Though, I will wait till a 'part 2' to detail the contracts and match scheduling. If you read this boring diatribe of love, thanks. If not, and you still commented, I hate you.

My overall impression so far? I'll tell you when I finish with the month.