Quick Look: WWE 2K19

My bar is so low I just want this to be not as bad as last year.

@garwalk said:

It's better than the last couple of years, but it's still one of those games. If you don't like the core of what those games are, you're not going to like this one.

It’s that time of year again. Let’s all gather and be sad that WWE All Stars 2: WWE vs. NXT will never happen.

Russtlin'

Triple H looks more like Kratos than ever.

Dan learning that he's aging is the best part of this game

I skipped 2K17 and 2K18 since I was done with the main gameplay and I got this solely for the revamped MyCareer and Showcase modes and it still has the main problems I have in that your matches end up being reversal-fests and you are down for ages a minute into the match etc. Also, the submission system seems to be messed up or something in that I did a Tower against some of the Women and couldn't beat Paige in a submission match despite beating the crap out of her and getting her down to red or beyond.

Time to wrestling: 0:00

My favourite time of year is watching this crew hate these awful games.

What's with the weird Infinity War tie-ins in the menu's?

why is everyone getting thanos snapped in the main menu?

Surprised Dan forgot the rumble Undertaker won where the final two was Shawn and Undertaker. Widely considered one of the better rumbles...

The other person to have won the Royal Rumble from #1 is Chris Benoit. For some reason, WWE doesn't like to mention this.

This Quick Look got Hindered

@sleinmcawesome said:

The first match is against the Red Hood, so they got that Marvel AND DC money.

I could watch youse guys scroll through community image uploads for an hour. Wish you’d do that with NBA 2K as well shit gets weird there too

Fuck Ciampa my future wife Nikki Cross isn’t in this game and that’s fuuuuucked!

This could be the MOST I have ever been frustrated watching a video on this website

I'm sorry Dan, I love you, but god dammit.

@garwalk: Your bars is low!

-Snoop Dogg

The big theme here is age and the inexorable passage of time.

Always a pleasure to have a spot of Wrassling on this here website.

Glad to see this game's a tad improved over the past few entries, at least. Their presentation stuff is still super solid and I wish they had a bit more time to polish the other features up.

The best part of this QL was them predicting that DBZ stuff would show up in the community creations, but then Dan (reasonably) not recognising Android 21. Still a little sad that we didn't get any weird foot fetish signs, though.

Grumble grumble the idea that the Roode/Nak era of NXT was "bad" makes me so upset. That version of bad basically just means it didn't hold up perfectly next to some of the best stuff like ever that came before. (which is what happens when you replace some of the best talent in the world with Bobby Roode).

I've been having fun with 2k19 so far. There is room for improvement by far still and there are some really weird glitches like the commentary team misgendering your player character on commentary constantly for some weird reason. But general weirdness aside I feel like this is finally the one where its deep enough into the generation that I would be okay recommending this to anyone who has been a fan of Yukes games in the past.

Sliding People's Elbow:

This is a Good WWE 2K game.

If you don't like this style of game it won't do anything for you, but as someone who has played all the WWE 2K games, this one is pretty much the best on the market and gives me hope for 2K20.

These games always depress me. I feel like I would love them if the gameplay wasn't such unadulterated shit.

Time to wrestling talk?

Also glad to hear AJ Kirsch is movin' on up. He is a solid duder.

And I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes it when the story mode goes weird. If it's going to pretend wrestling's not predetermined, it might as well have some fun with it. Personally I got a huge kick out of feuding with the Undertaker when he literally bent time and space to bring old legends in to fight you. And the commentators called it out.

We deserve the best wrestling game ever in 2019.

Wasn't Bossman the hero of last years quick look?

I love how Dan had no idea he had control over Batista in the rumble and just stands there until he gets eliminated.

Not to cause a fuss, but I feel Giant Bomb have been completely tone-deaf in publishing this video, when WWE's flashy new partners have been formally accused of murdering and dismembering a journalist.

@Dan - The controls are not confusing, they're nearly the same setup every popular wrestling game has used since the N64 era. Sure there's the carry mode, and limb targeting system, but those are completely optional and most players wouldn't even come across them outside of trying to break out of the drag icon wheel.

Also, don't worry so much about manually positioning your character, just go with the flow of what's happening....but having said that, don't spam strikes either, which you have a bad habit of doing. The more effort you put in to having a good match, the more rewarding it is. I say this every year, but just running around and spamming shit isn't gonna offer you much fun.

Another thing, your constant gripe about being a slave to the reversal icon, this is something that's the case in nearly all wrestling games outside of Fire Pro, it's not specific to 2K, it was present and even more complex in All Stars....a game you've said you loved. The thing is though, as with any game, the more you play...the easier they are anticipate and pull off. Fighting games have tons of shit you have to memorize, why is that a negative for the wrestling genre?

Other stuff...

• Story mode will likely never return as it's too much of a hassle for moderation reasons and server upkeep. Not to mention, just like Mario Maker, a good portion of what was uploaded was garbage.
• That career mode mystery man mask isn't dumb. With big head mode (something you guys forgot to showcase) you could potentially make a great Critters caw if you can layer hair over it.
• Bryan's Showcase consists of eleven matches with a bonus.
• Austin career retrospective Showcase from 2K16 was the last full-fledged version, 2K17 had a dlc pack of random Legend matches.
• AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan at Crown Jewel will likely be interference city from Miz and Samoa Joe leading to a fatal four-way at Survivor Series where Miz will capture the WWE Championship leading to Bryan winning the Rumble and yes, setting up their Wrestlemania money match.
• When was the last time a big man won the Royal Rumble? Just a few months ago. Braun Strowman, winner of the Greatest Royal Rumble.
• Oh, and Big John Studd didn't win the first Rumble, it was Hacksaw Jim Duggan...who despite being one of the most popular superstars of the Golden Era has never appeared in a Smackdown legacy title outside of its spinoff Legends of Wrestlemania back in 2009. With that many no shows you gotta wonder if he's blacklisted or 2x4 physics are too expensive to develop.

Alex shutting down Dan's pause joke is the funniest thing I've heard since Drew shutting down Dan's lavish praise for MGS 2's napkin physics.

@shiftygism: I got into these games when 2k15...? 2k16...? one of them...went free on Xbox One.

I fell out of wrestling games after nothing decent came out post-VPW2. I heard the 2k games were awful, so I made a joke charcater and beat The Undertaker with a testicular claw. The replay was amazingly stupid.

Anyhow...I enjoyed it. I’ve bought every one since. Digging this new one as well as the latest Fire Pro. Very different games, but I really enjoy them both.

As much as I like the 2k games, I get that they have issues. This one feels really polished compared to previous launches, and the upgrades to the engine and modes are very noticable over last year.

Anyhow, I’ll have to watch these guys talk shit about it. Watching Dan and Alex hate these games is fun.

Batista Did not deserve this :(

EDIT: JHINDER WASNT HINDERED! :D

My steam library shows that I've played a total of 153 hours of WWE 2K18. I've played maybe 2 whole matches, the other 152 hours were spent creating my board game group as wrestlers, putting them in universe mode, and then giving them insane gimmicks, and having universe mode run in the background while we played board games.

I'll probably do the same for WWE 2k19. Right now the plan is to have a final royal rumble in 2K18 for the infinity gauntlet and then the winner will get to reign supreme over 2k19 universe mode.

@doublexds: I was yelling at my TV during this.

The way animations string together is REALLY jarring

theres no hulkamaniacs here

Ax and Smash both being rated 100 is accurate.

As far as Kane winning a Battle Royal, he won the pre-show WrestleMania 24 one and won the ECW title as a result of it later the same night.

Undertaker's "not memorable" Royal Rumble win was when him and Shawn Michaels were the last two, and it was one of the most memorable Rumble finishes ever.

"Hulk Hogan has always been a bad person!" -Alex. Being one of the top 5 Make-A-Wish celebrities ever says that is not correct.

You can make a lot of sick kids happy (undeniably an act of good) and still be a bad person.

I think that might be a bit over the top. You can't lay the blame for the fucked up shit that happened on WWE, and you can't fault Giant Bomb for putting up content that involves them. I'm not into WWE's partnerships, but come on.

wtf is a kay fabe

As someone who has been incredibly critical of WWE lately and unsubbed from WWE Network because of their Saudi Arabia deal (weeks before the Khashoggi incident even happened), I don't really think there's harm in a video like this. It's not like GB is sponsored by WWE or is showering them with praise (quite the opposite, honestly). If this were a Quick Look EX or something else that's more of a promotional piece, I think this would be a bigger issue.

Wrestle-speak for a wrestler being in-character. It used to be that wrestlers would stay "in-kayfabe," or in-character, even outside of WWE events. Nowadays wrestlers just act like themselves when they're not competing, which is why Dan/Alex say it's kind of weird that, for instance, Braun Strowman acts like his giant intimidating monster WWE character backstage in the career mode when in reality he's pretty much just a chill Southern good ol' boy when he's not in the ring.

@dizagaox: They put out a game and we covered it. If we had said something positive or flattering about the Saudi shows I could understand being upset, but we didn't. I think Dan and I have said multiple times in the past we think WWE's role in the Saudi propaganda machine is bizarre and gross and just in case we haven't actually said it on record, let me do that here: WWE's role in the Saudi propaganda machine is bizarre and gross.

@alex: Hi Alex, I understand. I think yesterday there was a bombardment of press turning against Saudi Arabia's various international interests, including a few wrestling sites (I think WhatCulture was the loudest), but then I realised you would have a release schedule so it was completely separate to that. It's an interesting time for WWE now, as a franchise. I hope the propaganda they're inserting into the shows gets given the boot, though it'll be purely for optics and political reasons, and not moral.

@alex: You're good, Alex. Putting up this video was fine. It's a weird spot for WWE right now, but Giant Bomb has been a fairly neutral site when it comes to these sorts of debates. I, for one, generally understand that you guys are against shitty things in the world.

Dan, everyone hated Michael Cole WAY before the heel lead announcer thing.

I mean Meltzer has been speaking out against it for a while. At the very least WWE released a statement saying they're "monitoring the situation", which may not mean much but for WWE to acknowledge anything like this shows how bad it is. I'm not a fan of SA at all, but at the same time I understand a company not wanting to turn down an easy $50 Million check. Now they're kinda screwed because they've already started pushing this show so hard (worst of all for them, they actually had kept quiet about it (presumably because of how blatant its proximity to the Evolution show is), and like 2 weeks after they finally reveal it this happens), bringing back Brock Lesnar and Shawn Michaels in main event angles, neither of which they probably had any interest in outside of appeasing the crown prince, so if they do end up dropping the show (and I don't even know how they would be able to pull out given it's a 10 year deal), they either have to drop their two biggest stories right now, or give huge paydays to Shawn and Lesnar for a show where the costs aren't being offset. But at the same time that's what you get when you make a deal with the devil.

Hopefully at the very least they drop the "THE CROWN PRINCE IS DOING SO MUCH FOR THE COUNTRY!" propaganda shit for this show.