So I’ve recently moved into a new condo – it’s pretty sweet. Got a lot more space than I am used to, including a den to set up all of my gaming, comics and nerdy action figure shit. Thankfully my better half doesn’t mind. Last two days I’ve spent redoing my past-gen console set-up. I’ve taken my old workstation and lined up the N64, SNES, American & Japanese PS2′s along the top for some good old retro-gaming fun. My only issue is the wiring. Holy shit, what a fuckton of wires. Seriously. I have these cable covers from Ikea, but even then there’s still a lot of wiring to shove into them. Such is the price we pay for gaming heaven, I guess. Thankfully my cat is not a wire-gnawer. I’ll snap a pic of the finished product whenever it’s up and running – hopefully soon.

FYI, only fans familiar with the franchise will understand what the hell I’m talking about for the next few paragraphs. This week marked the release of the 12th Yukes-developed (THQ-published) WWE Smackdown series – WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011. Can’t believe it’s been 12 years. Yukes/THQ have been known for taking a few steps back in previous entries just so that they can take a leap forward for a future title and promote the re-additions as new features. That’s what this game feels like to me, a tiny step back to act as a stepping stone to next years game.

Sorry Jericho. Ireland always wins.

Number of grapples reduced? Check.
Number of moves reduced? Check.
Inability to defend titles in Exhibition mode? Check.
Inexplicable removal of the transparency feature in the create mode? Check.
Scaled back graphics? Check.

Those are just a few. Not to say that this isn’t a great game with some fun new features. We’ve got an online Royal Rumble this year, but I don’t play much online with it comes to wrestling games as the players are notoriously cheap. Lots of new stuff for the story mode this year, including a storyline for Toronto’s own (more like Orangeville) Christian and Edge. A very cool feature called Universe mode that tracks everything you do. With a little tweaking, Universe mode could be all aces. Right now it’s more or less a souped up GM mode.

Like I said, it’s a great game, but it feels like a stepping stone to bigger things in 2012. I’m sure it’ll keep dedicated fans of the franchise busy for the next 12 months.

Rex

Tonight, the Mojave wasteland beckons as I still have so much more to do in Fallout: New Vegas!

When I last left off, my hunt for a cyborg dog to join my band of crazy adventurers led me to Vault 22 overrun with killer vegetation. Creepy-ass plant-zombies popping out of random patches of foliage FTW!

Have I mentioned how much I love this game?