Post by mdogg on Apr 23, 2004 8:37:39 GMT -5
April 21, 2004 - In an announcement made exclusively through IGN today, the European publishing giant Eidos Interactive has officially unveiled the sequel to last year's solid-selling grappling experiment Backyard Wrestling. Known more formerly as Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood, this follow-up is once again being developed by the fighting freaks at Paradox Entertainment and features several new enhancements to the gameplay, graphics, and presentation. The most highly touted of which, would have to be the inclusion of the "Enviro-Mental" software engine and the much-needed head-to-head online support as a supplement.
"Harnessing the power of the Enviro-Mental gameplay engine, Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes The Neighborhood will continue blazing the trail of unprecedented environmental interaction and over the top violence," says Kevin Gill, Brand Manager at Eidos. "The inclusion of online play will finally allow gamers to deliver pain to opponents from around the world. With its completely re-designed and expanded create-a-wrestler system, an impressive new grappling system, more diverse move-set, solid hardcore soundtrack, and online play. BYW2 offers the complete wrestling package this fall."
Getting away from the official announcement and to be more specific, the "Enviro-Mental" engine is Paradox's way of addressing a lot of the concerns and problems that players had with the original. So while the first game boasted a decent amount of interactivity with backgrounds and weaponry, Backyard 2 takes it a step further by making almost everything in the environment useable and destructible. In the early levels we were demoed, for example, fences, tables, and lawnmowers could all be utilized as both stationary and melee weaponry; and were even picked up and thrown later as projectiles. Luckily, Paradox has also eliminated the "heat-seeking" tendencies of weapons and has made it a lot harder for opponents to hit each other from long distances. Furthermore, weapons can no longer simply disappear after one use and will now slowly deform and break over time as they would in real life. Other new gameplay conventions, like the CPU-controlled onlookers that leave the crowd to get involved in the fight, and unique grapple animations for each weapon already help to make the game a lot more appealing.
Happily, there's a great deal of strategy to how players use the weapons and environments around them too. Setting fire to a boat that serves as the means to get to the roof of a house, for instance, effectively cuts that roof off from being used for high-flying attacks -- which can just about cripple more acrobatic combatants and force them into different tactics. But since There Goes the Neighborhood abides by the philosophy of every action having an equal and opposite reaction, the fire can also be snuffed out with a fire extinguisher and open up access to that roof once again. Additionally, should players sprint around the level just throwing things until someone gets knocked out (a common cheese tactic in the original), they'll lose energy from their sprint meter and eventually be forced to slow down. And should they decide that they don't like where they're fighting, players can even break down certain segments of the level and step into an all-new environment. It's little touches like these that make Eidos hopeful that the game will be a lot deeper and more compelling for returning fans.
Of course there are additional changes to Backyard 2 than just what we've mentioned above, as Eidos has also listened to complaints about the grappling system. For starters, gamers can finally take their wrestling expertise to the mat and perform grapples from the ground. The lame headlock tie-up from the first game has been nixed as well and has been replaced by a number of different animations that varies from character to character. While we're on the subject of grapples, move sets and attack types are a lot more diverse too, with a far greater number of holds and strikes than what we saw before. But don't worry, Eidos has made sure to include the Def Jam-like super moves for an extra bit of pizzazz when the time comes.
In keeping with the idea that more is better, Career mode has also been given a complete revamp. Instead of simply moving players from cut scene to cut scene ala Backyard 1, BYW2 makes it a lot more interactive and story driven. To get things rolling, the game begins in the middle of a small town that's been chosen by Backyard Wrestling Incorporated as the spot for its very first pay-per-view. Your job as an up and coming wrestler is to appear in the main event of the PPV and win the unified BYW Championship belt and a million dollars. But then again, that's everyone else's goal too.
On their way to the eventual prize, gamers will be given the opportunity to win other championships from competing neighborhoods and go head to head with other hungry personalities. Returning favorites like the Insane Clown Posse, MDogg 20, Josh Prohibition, and others are scheduled to return, while a selection of new but established and make-believe wrestlers prepared to join the cast as well. One of the most interesting of these additions is ECW's favorite bounty hunter New Jack, who has entered the BYW league in hopes of winning those million bucks. Wrestling die-hards should also be pleased to know that New Jack is only the first of several big name professionals and celebrities slated to join the roster; though the remaining high profile names are still being kept a secret for now.
But truthfully, the career mode isn't really about using an established superstar from the world of wrestling anyway -- it's about building your guy up from a nobody to somebody. To do so, Paradox has included a much more flexible character creation system and allows for such minor adjustments as height and weight to the more detailed customization of clothing and equipment. Eidos is so confident in the feature's robustness, in fact, that the reps have already gone on record by stating that BYW2 has one of the most comprehensive creation tools in existence. And they just didn't direct that comment at the wrestling genre either, they meant it for the entire videogame world. Smackdown may finally be getting some real competition.
The most exciting aspect of BYW2, though, is probably online connectivity. The only known American wrestling title to make use of the Broadband Adapter to date, Backyard 2 already has a leg up on the competition. What makes the head-to-head online play even more appealing, however, is the way in which the ranking system works. As rather than simply let people fight it out against anyone and earn points to make it to the top, the game delegates players into perpetual tournament trees that slowly eliminate the weaker players on their way to the top and ensures that only the best will be fighting it out at the upper levels. Padded records and inflated numbers should be a thing of the past. And while Xbox Live owners already expect their experience to support the headset vocal communication, PS2 owners should be pleased to know that their platform will support it too.
Our only regret is that we have yet to give Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood a hands-on test -- as what we saw of it so far was only shown to us by Eidos representatives in the darkness of our demo room. The good news is, that BYW2 will be completely playable at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, and we expect to give it a full run through then. In the meantime, click on our media page below for the first batch of screenshots and stay tuned to IGN for an extra surprise or two as we lead up to the game's official unveiling in Los Angeles next month.
"Harnessing the power of the Enviro-Mental gameplay engine, Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes The Neighborhood will continue blazing the trail of unprecedented environmental interaction and over the top violence," says Kevin Gill, Brand Manager at Eidos. "The inclusion of online play will finally allow gamers to deliver pain to opponents from around the world. With its completely re-designed and expanded create-a-wrestler system, an impressive new grappling system, more diverse move-set, solid hardcore soundtrack, and online play. BYW2 offers the complete wrestling package this fall."
Getting away from the official announcement and to be more specific, the "Enviro-Mental" engine is Paradox's way of addressing a lot of the concerns and problems that players had with the original. So while the first game boasted a decent amount of interactivity with backgrounds and weaponry, Backyard 2 takes it a step further by making almost everything in the environment useable and destructible. In the early levels we were demoed, for example, fences, tables, and lawnmowers could all be utilized as both stationary and melee weaponry; and were even picked up and thrown later as projectiles. Luckily, Paradox has also eliminated the "heat-seeking" tendencies of weapons and has made it a lot harder for opponents to hit each other from long distances. Furthermore, weapons can no longer simply disappear after one use and will now slowly deform and break over time as they would in real life. Other new gameplay conventions, like the CPU-controlled onlookers that leave the crowd to get involved in the fight, and unique grapple animations for each weapon already help to make the game a lot more appealing.
Happily, there's a great deal of strategy to how players use the weapons and environments around them too. Setting fire to a boat that serves as the means to get to the roof of a house, for instance, effectively cuts that roof off from being used for high-flying attacks -- which can just about cripple more acrobatic combatants and force them into different tactics. But since There Goes the Neighborhood abides by the philosophy of every action having an equal and opposite reaction, the fire can also be snuffed out with a fire extinguisher and open up access to that roof once again. Additionally, should players sprint around the level just throwing things until someone gets knocked out (a common cheese tactic in the original), they'll lose energy from their sprint meter and eventually be forced to slow down. And should they decide that they don't like where they're fighting, players can even break down certain segments of the level and step into an all-new environment. It's little touches like these that make Eidos hopeful that the game will be a lot deeper and more compelling for returning fans.
Of course there are additional changes to Backyard 2 than just what we've mentioned above, as Eidos has also listened to complaints about the grappling system. For starters, gamers can finally take their wrestling expertise to the mat and perform grapples from the ground. The lame headlock tie-up from the first game has been nixed as well and has been replaced by a number of different animations that varies from character to character. While we're on the subject of grapples, move sets and attack types are a lot more diverse too, with a far greater number of holds and strikes than what we saw before. But don't worry, Eidos has made sure to include the Def Jam-like super moves for an extra bit of pizzazz when the time comes.
In keeping with the idea that more is better, Career mode has also been given a complete revamp. Instead of simply moving players from cut scene to cut scene ala Backyard 1, BYW2 makes it a lot more interactive and story driven. To get things rolling, the game begins in the middle of a small town that's been chosen by Backyard Wrestling Incorporated as the spot for its very first pay-per-view. Your job as an up and coming wrestler is to appear in the main event of the PPV and win the unified BYW Championship belt and a million dollars. But then again, that's everyone else's goal too.
On their way to the eventual prize, gamers will be given the opportunity to win other championships from competing neighborhoods and go head to head with other hungry personalities. Returning favorites like the Insane Clown Posse, MDogg 20, Josh Prohibition, and others are scheduled to return, while a selection of new but established and make-believe wrestlers prepared to join the cast as well. One of the most interesting of these additions is ECW's favorite bounty hunter New Jack, who has entered the BYW league in hopes of winning those million bucks. Wrestling die-hards should also be pleased to know that New Jack is only the first of several big name professionals and celebrities slated to join the roster; though the remaining high profile names are still being kept a secret for now.
But truthfully, the career mode isn't really about using an established superstar from the world of wrestling anyway -- it's about building your guy up from a nobody to somebody. To do so, Paradox has included a much more flexible character creation system and allows for such minor adjustments as height and weight to the more detailed customization of clothing and equipment. Eidos is so confident in the feature's robustness, in fact, that the reps have already gone on record by stating that BYW2 has one of the most comprehensive creation tools in existence. And they just didn't direct that comment at the wrestling genre either, they meant it for the entire videogame world. Smackdown may finally be getting some real competition.
The most exciting aspect of BYW2, though, is probably online connectivity. The only known American wrestling title to make use of the Broadband Adapter to date, Backyard 2 already has a leg up on the competition. What makes the head-to-head online play even more appealing, however, is the way in which the ranking system works. As rather than simply let people fight it out against anyone and earn points to make it to the top, the game delegates players into perpetual tournament trees that slowly eliminate the weaker players on their way to the top and ensures that only the best will be fighting it out at the upper levels. Padded records and inflated numbers should be a thing of the past. And while Xbox Live owners already expect their experience to support the headset vocal communication, PS2 owners should be pleased to know that their platform will support it too.
Our only regret is that we have yet to give Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood a hands-on test -- as what we saw of it so far was only shown to us by Eidos representatives in the darkness of our demo room. The good news is, that BYW2 will be completely playable at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, and we expect to give it a full run through then. In the meantime, click on our media page below for the first batch of screenshots and stay tuned to IGN for an extra surprise or two as we lead up to the game's official unveiling in Los Angeles next month.
