WWE 2K22 is ... not too bad?
Plus the perils of cloud gaming, GTA 5 again, and why run when you can WAAAAAAH.
Welcome back to Press Any Button! This week we’re talking about a wrestling game that’s mostly only broken in a philosophical sense, which is an improvement, as well as wondering where the hell all the good game manual copywriters are and going over the week’s best deals.
The biggest release at the moment is arguably Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, but so soon after Elden Ring (whether you’re still into it, tried and failed to connect or are tired of hearing about it), it could be too much hardcore action RPG too soon. A gritty remake of the original 1985 Final Fantasy is a sweet idea, but boy does this thing look just unnecessarily gritty. Other than that we’re in a holding pattern for late week goodies like Tunic and the new Mario Kart tracks.
We are always keen to hear your feedback. Please leave a comment or reply, or hit us up on Twitter at @timbiggs, @alicedkc or @_pressanybutton and tell us if there’s anything you want to see more or less of.
Sports entertainment, but emphasis on the sports
By Tim
Wrestling games, like wrestling itself, exist at a crossroads between sports and theatrical make-believe. And while in an ideal world that could make for some unique and wonderful fun, in reality it's made for a tension that's spoiled a large number of games produced over the past 20 years.
As with many sports series, wrestling games today are dominated by annual, licensed products controlled by the largest organisation in the space. And the WWE's desire to be taken seriously as a competitive sport means that the major modern wrestling game series, WWE 2K, treats matches as real contests that the player is simulating, both missing the point of wrestling and providing a boring framework for a video game.
On top of that the series has stagnated, with lacklustre new features piled on top of ancient foundations for years, and in 2020 it was so legitimately borked that the team took the extreme measure of missing a year to get things back in order.
So now that we have WWE 2K22, how much has been fixed and how much remains broken? It's still practically identical in its philosophy, prioritising a TV look and pretending the hits and rivalries are real above all else.
But on the plus side it's the most fun I've had with the series in ages. The roster is huge and diverse, if weirdly out of date (it seems like this may have been the lineup planned for 2021), and the systems for grappling, reversals, strike combos and special moves make for flowy and interesting matches.
The creation suite, where it hasn’t been pared back, is largely unchanged and feels dated. The soundtrack sucks, and the new MyFaction mode is a blatant cash grab in the vein of FIFA's Ultimate Team. But I did enjoy the Rey Mysterio showcase mode, almost all the wrestlers look good and I so far have experienced no game-breaking bugs or reality-warping physics mishaps. This may seem like a low bar to pass, but 2K20 failed on these counts so it's an improvement nonetheless.
What to play
Grand Theft Auto V, the second best-selling game of all time, now has versions specific to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. For those keeping score, this means it's been released natively across three consecutive console generations. There's no free upgrade for those who've bought it once or twice in the past, so you have to buy it again, but there is a launch discount everyone can enjoy. On Xbox the game is $30 (half price), while on PS5 it's $15. PS5 players can also get just the multiplayer GTA Online component, for free.
PlayStation is running an indies sale for the next week, so if you're after some boutique nonsense that's temporarily less than $20 then I (Tim) have a few suggestions: Competitive level editor / platformer Ultimate Chicken Horse, which may be my favourite couch co-op ever; Surprisingly great dungeon crawler Darksiders Genesis; Reverse monster movie pastiche Carrion, and; Bullet time masterpiece SUPERHOT. If you're into horror, Bloober Team and Frictional Games both appear to have all their offerings marked at between 70% and 90% off, so you could grab Amnesia, Soma or Layers of Fear for a steal.
Interest in Wordle may be waning somewhat, with every person and their dog complaining about how The New York Times has somehow ruined it. I’m (Alice) still playing Wordle every morning, but I’ve also added two other games to my rotation in the evenings: Heardle and Octordle. Heardle can be hit and miss, playing increasingly long snippets of songs and seeing if you can guess the tune from the first 1–16 seconds. If you know your top 40 hits, you should be alright. Octordle is my favourite, though. You effectively play eight games of Wordle at once, and for some reason I find it easier and more satisfying than Wordle. I’m less focused on getting the words in as few guesses as possible, and more just trying to guess it at all. Somehow that takes some of the pressure off it.
The Epic Games Store is currently running a 2K Publisher sale with up to 85% off everything. So, if you’ve been waiting to dive into the Borderlands games, the Mafia franchise, or Civilisation VI on PC, there are some bargains to be had.
Xbox cloud gaming still has some kinks to work out
By Alice
Could gaming is the coolest new thing that Xbox has done in ages, and that’s saying a lot. It effectively means that you can play all the latest Xbox games without owning an Xbox, so long as you’re willing to shell out for Game Pass Ultimate each month and own a controller.
This week I got to leave the house to go to Sydney for the first time in a long time, and decided to bring a controller along to stave off boredom while I hung out in the lounge. Obviously, I booted up Forza Horizon 5, which should have been fine. It was not fine.
After taking a very long time to sync my progress with the cloud, it stalled at 99% and said the sync failed and asked me to try again. It then loaded immediately to a map with “new” badges on a lot of things that I have definitely done before. Hovering over those events they remembered that I had earned all accolades from them, but still said they were new.
Having been caught up in two previous save file bugs on Forza Horizons 2 and 4, I recognised this as a bad sign.
Having gone through Forza Support, I now know that this is a known bug and there’s no definitive way to fix your save file after messing it up (though I think I might have found a potential fix). The fact that the game is still offered for Cloud Gaming, despite them knowing this is a not uncommon problem, fills me with an indescribable rage.
The support people and other people at the studio are lovely and have gone above and beyond to try and help me find a solution. This isn’t a malicious decision, more a bureaucratic decision made from on high. But it is deeply frustrating.
I strongly recommend you don’t play any games that are very important to you on the cloud for the time being. Maybe choose one title to be your designated cloud game, and stick to that. Because it is worth trying, but not on anything that would make you sad if it broke.
Bricks, Boards and Beginnings
by Alice
Technical copywriting is an impressive skill. You have to convey extremely specific things in ways that are 100% correct, cannot be misconstrued, and won’t get the company sued. I have huge respect for people who can do that.
Writing board game instructions seems to require a similar level of skill. One must simply convey complicated rules in a way any player can understand.
Unfortunately it’s not a skill that has been widely utilised, even on some of the most popular games, and it’s maddening. A new player should be able to open up a game manual, read it once, and understand how to play. Not have to solve the developer’s riddles three.
Games like Azul are incredibly simple, and should be easy to explain, but the instructions overcomplicate things to the point where even people who have played and enjoyed the first three Azul titles gave up on trying to learn Queen’s Garden. That’s a shame, because it’s a great game. But no one will discover that if they can’t work out how to play it.
An example of a game that gets this right is Carcassonne. You can sit down with that manual and know how to play the game in about five minutes. It helps that it’s a relatively simple game, but so is the original Azul and that rulebook is as clear as mud.
There is a whole community that has grown specifically to communicate the rules of games in videos and walkthroughs, and I’m extremely grateful to them (though even they’re not always completely reliable). But while that should always be an option for visual learners, players shouldn’t have to resort to watching a YouTube video because the rulebook has failed to perform its primary purpose. I would be very interested to hear from you, gentle reader, if you’ve seen particularly good or bad examples of tabletop rulebooks.
Retro Esoterica
by Tim
Wario, the yellow and purple anti-Mario, turns 30 this year. And despite most people knowing who he is (from Kart, or Smash, or Mario Party), the Wario Land games that star this ugly, abrasive, garlic-eating human garbage bag are criminally underplayed.
I realised a few months ago they were a blind spot for me so I’ve been going through them one by one, which isn’t easy since you’ll either need Game Boy hardware, a 3DS and Wii U or a willingness to emulate. It was worth it though, as I was simultaneously thrilled to discover them and disappointed this series isn’t still active.
Wario originally appeared as the antagonist — a goblin wearing a bloated version of Mario’s skin — in Super Mario Land 2 on Game Boy, but in Wario Land we got to play as him for the first time. He’s essentially a slow and heavy Mario here, with his (and his games’) true quirkiness not really explored until Wario Land 2 and 3 on Game Boy Color.
There, Wario can no longer be killed by enemies, but needs to subject himself to specific pain (be squished, be set on fire), in order to transform himself and progress. Levels are puzzly, and the games are filled with treasure, secrets and minigames, which I love.
Wario Land 4, on Game Boy Advance, is the most beautiful, complex and open-ended entry. I do feel like it regresses a bit by reinstating Wario’s ability to take damage, but it’s still amazing. All four games were created by a group of Nintendo devs formerly known as R&D1, and are perfect showcases of their specific brand of weird humour and subversive design.
Attempts were made to continue the series after 2001 with other developers, but Wario World, Master of Disguise and Shake Dimension are all missing the spark. This, plus the inherent difficulty of re-releasing Game Boy games the same way Nintendo does SNES and NES games, has probably contributed to how little we hear about these games today.