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Indeed there are no secondary championships at all. There’s no option to have a match or tournament to set your World Champions – you just cherry pick one male and one female.
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Rather than run for an indeterminate period, as you’d expect from Madden 22 franchise mode or FIFA 22 career mode, you’re limited to a season of either 15, 25, or 50 weeks in MyGM. After you’re all set up, the focus is on building feuds across a series of weeks and shows, and on keeping a close eye on budget and how your rival is doing. WWE 2K22 nWo Editionĭrafting a roster using a budget of $2.7m is good fun, as is adding made-up free agents such as the hammy Jive Owens and crown-wearing Triton to job out to your stars. It’s a replacement for the outstanding GM Modes from THQ’s heyday, letting you pick one of five onscreen bosses (Regal! Stephanie! Sorry Shane O’Mac, no-one wants to be you), select one of four brands (with NXT UK given equal billing to Raw), and go head-to-clipboard against either an AI or human rival. Take the swelteringly anticipated new mode, MyGM. The new controls help the game feel more fast-paced when compared to its predecessors, with the more complex moves made much easier to pull off thanks to on-screen prompts and by having less complicated button combinations. While Y is the main counter button, if players can properly guess and time their opponent’s next attack by hitting the same button as they do, they have another chance to counter. Players can use different combinations to perform different moves, and these buttons are also used for counters. On Xbox, the X button is for light strikes, while the A button is for heavy strikes, and B is used for grapples. WWE 2K22’s new control scheme is simpler than what’s come before, but anyone having trouble can get up to speed with the game’s helpful, quick tutorial.
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It feels like much more than a simple roster update, with new game modes, new controls, and a vastly improved visual presentation that blows all previous WWE video games out of the water.
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WWE 2K22 is a massive step forward compared to the disastrous WWE 2K20, so it seems the extra development time genuinely paid off.
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The backlash to WWE 2K20 was so significant that 2K Sports decided to cancel the planned WWE 2K21 and allow the development team to focus their efforts on WWE 2K22 instead. But then WWE 2K20 threw the franchise off the rails, earning scathing reviews from critics and getting labeled as one of the worst-reviewed wrestling video games ever made. Like other sports game franchises, the WWE 2K series has consistently put out a new game every year with minor changes and an updated roster. Actually, the same is true of most Smackdown broadcasts, so maybe it’s a subtle tactic aimed to mimic reality. WWE 2K22 regularly teases you with brilliance, only to throw in an occasional head-scratching heel-turn.
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