WWE '12

I am making this review because I feel that there is a lot of false negative reviews out there from non WWE or pro wrestling fans. Some of the review complaints I have seen are valid while many others I feel in my opinion are unfair or just plain do not make sense, from a honest reviewer perspective. I have EVERY other wwe/wwf game ever made since PSOne. I also own all the Gamecube wrestling games. I had in the past played and owned all the N64 wrestling games as all.Graphic: Slightly better than SvR 2011, fine at PS3 standard...System: Load time / Save time - a lot faster than previous games. Thumb up for this. Menu screen look great ...however why is only Randy Orton there, plus what happened to WWE 10/11 practice moves at start screen option go???Gameplay: A lot of people said that the predator engine was a marketing scam from THQ. I am here to state it is different enough to warrant what has been said about the gameplay feeling fresh and new from THQ. However I can still feel a bit of smackdown past engine in here but this predator engine makes everything feel much different for the better overall.Details: Good job for wrestler movesets, much improved from years past, there is always room for improvement.Universe Mode: Much better than 2011, once again the little things here is what make the game really shine.Road to WrestleMania: Fresh air! I do not understand where the complaints are coming from I only see improvements here. I think a lot of the negative reviews here (major websites video gaming sites) come from the fact that the reviews are really not major wwe fans. I think a lot of the reviewers that are clueless in SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT WORLD expect a street fighter or Mortal Kombat mode story which to a wwe fan is ridiculous.Roster: Best to date with the exception being here comes the pain. Which had a incredible roster still however with the DLC may be better in time.Online multi-players: New server, much better, a little lag at times, but THQ claims will be fixed in coming days.Overall: Ok, still the best wrestling game since Here Comes the Pain, honestly I think the best and to me goes down with the greats like dare I say it No Mercy, WCW nwo Revenge etc. I rarely ever make reviews but I just felt I had to make one from a WWE fan and video gamer perspective that has ALL PAST SMACKDOWN GAMES! So go get the game I think overall most will be very happy with it. From one to ten I would honestly give this game a 9.

Let me start off by saying that I have played every single Smackdown series game except for Smackdown 1, and SvR 2007. I've also played the N64 greats such as No Mercy and Wrestlemania 2000. I only say this so anyone looking at this review will know i'ts the real deal and not some random guy who picked up the game and wants to point out all the bad parts without saying what is good.Starting off, this game is tough. I think it's partly due to me switching consoles. I had played all the original Smackdown games on PS2, then from 2008-2011 I was always on Xbox so going to PS3 kinda threw me off. I had a pretty hard time fighting normal and easy mode AI bots. After a few games I realized that I was using the D-Pad to move which is actually the taunt button, and I was using right stick for grapples which is actually the X button. Anyway, after getting used to all the controls this game got a lot more fun. My only gripe is that it is hard to do reversals, but i'm sure i'll get used to it as I play more. But my biggest dislike is the way you kick out of pins. You have to hold the X button to move up a meter and stop it on a precise spot on that meter to kick out. Sometimes i'll lose a match early just because I mess up on accident. Again i'm sure i'll get past that.Another downside (for me, a fan of the attitude era) is the horrible roster. The only good people you start off with are Triple H, Undertaker, and Kane. I do have The Rock which is great, and I have also unlocked Steve Austin who is my favorite wrestler. I used to watch WWF/WWE every week back around 1999-2004 then stopped because it got boring. I have nothing against people who like John Cena or Randy Orton but personally I think they're just boring and overrated. I'm glad I get Steve and Rocky, but I'd like to have some of the other legends.The graphics are great this year, i'm pretty impressed. They seemed to have not put much thought/effort into Steve Austin though. He is without a doubt the greatest WWF superstar of all time and should have had more effort put into him. There is just something about him that doesn't look right to me.There are two ring announcers from what I can tell. One of them is alright, and the other one is TERRIBLE. I don't know how this guy got a job at WWE. I guess i'm just nostalgic for Howard Finkel.All the little cons here and there aside, this is a great game. You just have to put the effort into getting used to the controls and it's smooth from there.----Update 11/24/11I've now had the chance to play this game a bit more. Reversals are starting to get a little easier, you just have to really anticipate the opponents move, requiring a bit of skill rather than just pushing a button constantly. Kicking out of pins is a little easier for me now too, but I find that later on in a game when your guy is worn down it is pretty hard to do the kick out. I just wish you could do some button pushing instead of ONLY using the meter system.I looked over another review that said the AI bots are too easy. Playing a little more, I now play on the hardest difficulty which is legend. I do find it easier than the maximum difficulties of the other games, but this game has a cool little option that can fix this. You can go into the options and increase the AI abilities. By this I mean simple things like raising their percentage of reversing your moves, and other things that make the AI harder. I would assume if you max everything out then you would have an unstoppable AI force.Online play is pretty smooth, the WWE '12 team posted an update today that said they're fixing server issues that are causing lag. I'm glad the team is working hard on this. As usual, there are player matches and ranked matches. It kinda sucks that with the millions of people who get this game, you'll only see like 15 servers up at a time for each section. I really recommend you to play offline and learn all the controls and be able to beat legend mode computers before playing online. I lost a few matches online to horrible players just because they could reverse all my moves and I sucked at it. I cannot stress enough that the reversals are hard!

so I purchase WWE 13 a few months ago, I enjoyed it or Mon but then became frustrated. my Playstation 3 must have froze proximately 20 times due to the unfinished product that was WWE 13. my biggest gripes with WWE 13 were as follows... freezes, unable to get a to count, the easy AI, the AI obsession with OMG moments, and the frustration of downloading c.a.w online. so I sold the game and shortly after decided to purchase WWE 12 in order to satisfy my wrestling game needs. the results were as follows....no more 1 count glitch, a vastly improved and competent AI, I have not had not even 1 freeze issue, I was able to download 50 created wrestlers in less than 2 hours... unbelievably satisfying.yes WWE 12 lacks the Attitude Era Superstars and it lacks the cool created custom stage, but this game will be played by me until probably WWE 14 comes out if it any good. also in WWE 12 alberto Del Rio's ring announcer is property inserted in the game but in WWE 13... they screwed that up asmong other things. in my opinion even the presentation in regards to the opening cinematic or the main menu out does WWE 13.in closing buy this game you won't be disappointed as I was when I played WWE 13. The AI is great compared to WWE 13 crappy AI, no more 1 count bug, also the online works way better than in WWE 13. also I no longer have to unplug my Playstation 3 or restart it because of the rushed an unfinished product that was WWE 13.