AEW Games Thread (AEW:FF on Playstation Plus in June)

[Soultastic]

Jul 3, 2024 13:08:59 GMT -5 markymark said:

There should be a 0.3% chance of him being announced as Knife Pervert.

[Andew9001]

The Jay White and Tournament pack is out and they're also releasing a bundle with all the season passes together. Not sure on price yet. With the way they've released dlc and game bundles who knows if this is really the end of support.

And Evil Uno still isn't in the game.

Edit: so i'm in New Zealand and if i was to buy the base game and the complete season pass bundle seperately it would cost $128.80 combined (they're $64.40 each.) Meanwhile the Ultimate Edition that includes the game and all the dlc together costs $161.90. So i guess Matt Hardy is worth $30 more.

And currently Season Pass 1 is $50, Season 2 is $40, Season 3 is $28 and Season 4 is $33. And Matt Hardy is about $7.

Unless some major price drops are coming to the season passes and the Ultimate Edition i have no idea what they are doing price wise with this game.

Thank god i didn't buy all the dlc because i'd be furious if i spent all that money only for them to bundle them all together for less than the first 2 passes alone.

[Hurbster]

[Mid-Carder]

Jul 21, 2024 9:10:02 GMT -5 Hurbster said:

This is spot on. Both with the negative and positive. It's probably 6 months since I've played it.

[Lizuka #BLM]

The only way I could really see myself checking the game out again is if they put it on Gamepass at some point. I've got the Switch version but I don't presently have it installed, it takes up too much space to really bother making room for it, and last time I did check it out it was significantly more glitchy for me than it was at launch.

[skullman21]

I played it once for about 20 minutes. That was enough for me. I got it as a gift from my wife so I didn't pay anything for it, but feel bad she spent money on it to be honest. It's just not a good game at all. Especially at full price. I'd have a hard time recommending it even at $15. If you get a chance to play it for free great, but otherwise ....it's not worth your time.

[A Platypus Rave is Correct]

Jul 21, 2024 9:10:02 GMT -5 Hurbster said:

Yeah. this pretty much hits the nail on the head.

Especially the it feels like a game they had to publish, not that they wanted to publish.

I feel like the CAW mode in general feels like a "well we need a CAW mode because every wrestling game has one but we don't actually want to do anything with it."

Also As I've said there are a lot of points where the game feels like a 50/50 compromise so that no one is happy...

[A Platypus Rave is Correct]

Jul 24, 2024 7:28:06 GMT -5 skullman21 said:

I played it once for about 20 minutes. That was enough for me. I got it as a gift from my wife so I didn't pay anything for it, but feel bad she spent money on it to be honest. It's just not a good game at all. Especially at full price. I'd have a hard time recommending it even at $15. If you get a chance to play it for free great, but otherwise ....it's not worth your time.

I played it opening weekend... I was lucky and worked at a game store at the time and so after like 2 days of trying to enjoy it I went to my boss and basically demanded my money back...

[Ecks Ecks Ringout Ecks Ecks]

Finally got a lil' extra disposable income that coincides with a Fight Forever sale, so I'm considering picking up the base game and giving it a try.

A bit hesitant to ask given all the negative responses, but how is the CPU vs CPU/simming side of things, relative to the AKI games? Do the AI settings more or less make your created wrestler stick to a recognizable style? Will they always go for their finisher, even if it's something a bit less accessible than a front grapple?

I'm aware that the CAW visuals are extremely bare bones, but I'm in a weird category where that's more a positive than a negative. I enjoy the process of creating my own wrestlers and simming matches, but I don't have nearly as much free time as I used to, so it's better for me to play a game where I can quickly slap together an approximation, rather than having choice paralysis with an extremely deep system that takes hours to effectively use.

[A Platypus Rave is Correct]

Aug 10, 2024 13:59:10 GMT -5 Ecks Ecks Ringout Ecks Ecks said:

Finally got a lil' extra disposable income that coincides with a Fight Forever sale, so I'm considering picking up the base game and giving it a try.

A bit hesitant to ask given all the negative responses, but how is the CPU vs CPU/simming side of things, relative to the AKI games? Do the AI settings more or less make your created wrestler stick to a recognizable style? Will they always go for their finisher, even if it's something a bit less accessible than a front grapple?

I'm aware that the CAW visuals are extremely bare bones, but I'm in a weird category where that's more a positive than a negative. I enjoy the process of creating my own wrestlers and simming matches, but I don't have nearly as much free time as I used to, so it's better for me to play a game where I can quickly slap together an approximation, rather than having choice paralysis with an extremely deep system that takes hours to effectively use.

It's so bare bones that you may not even be able to get an approximation of what you want.

[Psicofreak667]

It's WWF No Mercy, but with that stiff jankiness that the earliest WWF Smackdown vs Raw games had only even worse, off-putting graphics that can't decide whether they're going for realistic or cartoony, and not enough match variety to keep things entertaining. It's not even bad enough to be entertaining that way. Sometime below average can be worse than terrible.

[A Platypus Rave is Correct]

Aug 25, 2024 17:44:15 GMT -5 Psicofreak667 said:

It's WWF No Mercy, but with that stiff jankiness that the earliest WWF Smackdown vs Raw games had only even worse, off-putting graphics that can't decide whether they're going for realistic or cartoony, and not enough match variety to keep things entertaining. It's not even bad enough to be entertaining that way. Sometime below average can be worse than terrible.

On the graphics it's one of those things a compromise was clearly made when... no something should have been definitive not half and half.

You can go cartoonish arcade look or you can go realistic.

Going half and half like they did is the worst of both worlds.

[Soultastic]

Aug 25, 2024 19:27:08 GMT -5 A Platypus Rave is Correct said:

Aug 25, 2024 17:44:15 GMT -5 Psicofreak667 said:

It's WWF No Mercy, but with that stiff jankiness that the earliest WWF Smackdown vs Raw games had only even worse, off-putting graphics that can't decide whether they're going for realistic or cartoony, and not enough match variety to keep things entertaining. It's not even bad enough to be entertaining that way. Sometime below average can be worse than terrible.

On the graphics it's one of those things a compromise was clearly made when... no something should have been definitive not half and half.

You can go cartoonish arcade look or you can go realistic.

Going half and half like they did is the worst of both worlds.

I think another issue with the graphics is that they were trying to emulate something born out of necessity.

Was the way the AKI games or the old SmackDown games looked an intentional artistic choice by the developers or an attempt to be realistic within the limitations of the time? I don't think you can recreate something like that just by messing with body proportions.

[Johnny Flamingo]

I really enjoy the actual in ring play in Fight Forever. I still find that matches pretty fun to play.

The beach and Japan arenas make the game feel better to me than the standard arena.

The major issue is the game is so bare bones. Like others have mentioned, it’s clear there was a lot of compromise that hurt the product. If have preferred them but have a create a wrestler and instead focused on a more fleshed out career mode of more match types.

As it is the create a wrestler is abysmal and the career mode is just ok.

If they can make a new game and tweak the gameplay a bit, add some more options and flesh out the game it could be a very good product.

[Mozenrath]

Aug 27, 2024 6:59:06 GMT -5 Johnny Flamingo said:

I really enjoy the actual in ring play in Fight Forever. I still find that matches pretty fun to play.

The beach and Japan arenas make the game feel better to me than the standard arena.

The major issue is the game is so bare bones. Like others have mentioned, it’s clear there was a lot of compromise that hurt the product. If have preferred them but have a create a wrestler and instead focused on a more fleshed out career mode of more match types.

As it is the create a wrestler is abysmal and the career mode is just ok.

If they can make a new game and tweak the gameplay a bit, add some more options and flesh out the game it could be a very good product.

If they do manage to get a sequel*, then yeah, I could see this being the Smackdown 1 to its Smackdown 2, where the sequel essentially built on a really limited game's skeleton and fleshed it into something special.

*A sequel to this, specifically. I do not doubt that AEW will eventually have another proper game, but what form that'd take is going to be kind of up in the air given how this played out, obviously.

[Johnny Flamingo]

Aug 27, 2024 18:58:17 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Aug 27, 2024 6:59:06 GMT -5 Johnny Flamingo said:

I really enjoy the actual in ring play in Fight Forever. I still find that matches pretty fun to play.

The beach and Japan arenas make the game feel better to me than the standard arena.

The major issue is the game is so bare bones. Like others have mentioned, it’s clear there was a lot of compromise that hurt the product. If have preferred them but have a create a wrestler and instead focused on a more fleshed out career mode of more match types.

As it is the create a wrestler is abysmal and the career mode is just ok.

If they can make a new game and tweak the gameplay a bit, add some more options and flesh out the game it could be a very good product.

If they do manage to get a sequel*, then yeah, I could see this being the Smackdown 1 to its Smackdown 2, where the sequel essentially built on a really limited game's skeleton and fleshed it into something special.

*A sequel to this, specifically. I do not doubt that AEW will eventually have another proper game, but what form that'd take is going to be kind of up in the air given how this played out, obviously.

With the negative reception of this game I’m thinking the next one won’t be FF2. Would make sense to just wash their hands and have a fresh start.

I’d also not hype anything until it’s close to completed.

[lucas_lee]

Aug 27, 2024 23:59:49 GMT -5 Johnny Flamingo said:

Aug 27, 2024 18:58:17 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

If they do manage to get a sequel*, then yeah, I could see this being the Smackdown 1 to its Smackdown 2, where the sequel essentially built on a really limited game's skeleton and fleshed it into something special.

*A sequel to this, specifically. I do not doubt that AEW will eventually have another proper game, but what form that'd take is going to be kind of up in the air given how this played out, obviously.

With the negative reception of this game I’m thinking the next one won’t be FF2. Would make sense to just wash their hands and have a fresh start.

I’d also not hype anything until it’s close to completed.

I'm telling you Def Jam vs AEW is right there

[froggyfrog]

Are they still planning DLCs for this or are they finally cooking up a new game? I like the idea of updating via DLC, but whoever came up with the pricing was sadly high on crack. They really need a new base game with more modes and replayability

[Lizuka #BLM]

Sept 17, 2024 16:30:18 GMT -5 froggyfrog said:

Are they still planning DLCs for this or are they finally cooking up a new game? I like the idea of updating via DLC, but whoever came up with the pricing was sadly high on crack. They really need a new base game with more modes and replayability

I'm guessing it's dead-dead. This is the longest they've been without DLC since launch and if anything was going to reinvigorate the game it was going to be being added to PS Plus which seems to have done nothing.

That said I also highly doubt there's a new game in the works either. You're going to want to take some time off to build anticipation there, you announce a new game right now and nobody's going to buy the thing.

[markymark]

The future of AEW video games currently hangs in the balance.

Multiple sources have told me that the decision makers at AEW are “strongly considering” finding a new development partner moving forward. This comes after numerous issues surrounding the game’s development.

“They [AEW] knows that things didn’t go the way they expected,” one source said. “The game was over-budget and it under delivered when it came out. It has AEW strongly considering moving to a new developer for their games.”

AEW Fight Forever launched in June 2023 to mixed response. While the gameplay was fun and easy to pick up, the lack of depth and various bugs was a turnoff for many players. In April 2024, Insider Gaming was told that there was pressure on the developers to “deliver something faster than what it should’ve been”.

Now, AEW is trying to figure out where to go with their games. The original contract with Yuke’s called for one year of post launch updates which came in the form of four season passes that added wrestlers, moves, game modes, and venues. The last DLC pack game out in July, adding Jay White to the roster. There have been talks for releasing recently signed wrestlers Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada, and Mercedes Mone to the game’s roster, but it’s unclear where those talks between AEW and Yuke’s stand.

The sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity say that the primary focus is around the gaming future as a whole.

Issues From The Start

Issues with Yuke’s and AEW date back to before Fight Forever was released. There was a lot of butting heads between both sides, including involving AEW executive vice president Kenny Omega. At one point, I was told Omega was frustrated to the point of “hating” working with Yuke’s while others felt that Yuke’s was trying to “take advantage” of Omega due to his inexperience around helping with game development.

“No one was really happy when the game came out,” a source said. “Even before launch, internal talks started about whether to continue with the game with Yuke’s, bring it over to a new developer and either build on what’s been done or start from scratch, or leave the console market and continue to focus on mobile.

“A lot of people in the company want another shot with a console game, but it only matters if the one signing the checks wants to trust them again.”

When asked where that sits, I was told, “No one knows.”

AEW owns the engine used for Fight Forever, and can bring it over to a new developer if they wanted to build on top of what was made. It’s unlikely that, after Fight Forever went well over budget and didn’t turn a profit, the company would look to have another game built from scratch. But that comes down to the kind of deal made with a new partner.

It’s important to clarify that these are currently in the discussions stage. No final decision has been made by AEW regarding a new partner or if there will even be a new game any time soon.

“There are feelers out to some of the larger developers in the space, including some obvious ones, to see what the interest in wrestling games are,” it was said. “They are doing their due diligence before any decision is made.”

insider-gaming.com/aew-strongly-considering-new-partner-for-future-video-games/