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Curtain Jerker: EXCLUSIVE Preview of Total Extreme Warfare
Doron Barbalat, Torch Team Contributor
Mar 30, 2004, 4:29 pm
In just one day, the day many fans have been waiting for the last nearly nine months will finally arrive.
Tomorrow, Total Extreme Warfare will be released.
TEW is the next step in the Extreme Warfare series. The EW series, created by Adam Ryland, which took wrestling promoter simulators to the next level, has been around for years in the form of freeware, and a few years ago, Extreme Warfare Revenge updated the series both graphically and dramatically in terms of content. After four versions of the game were created, and many other updates, last summer Adam Ryland finally took the game to a new level. After releasing EWR4, Adam announced that he would be joining .400 Studios, and would be professionally creating his next game, Total Extreme Warfare.
With professional programming supplies to use, Adam Ryland’s near yearlong journey to create TEW has come to an end, and the game will be released internationally tomorrow. Adam and the TEW team were kind enough to grant me with an advanced copy of the game, and here as a PWTorch.com exclusive, I present a preview of TEW.
Keep in mind as you read that due to this being a professional game, and that customers will pay it for, real characters could not be “officially” used in the game. This means that the game itself cannot have real life wrestlers or promotions in it due to licensing issues. Never fear, as the game world is fully customizable, and third parties will release “real life” versions of the game at the same time as the game is released tomorrow. However, the update was not available at the time of this preview, so fictional characters and promotions will be used. Also, keep in mind that the advanced copy I received was of the 1-day trial, and as I write this, I am playing the game for the first time. Stay tuned though; as in the few weeks I will present an interview with the creator of TEW, Adam Ryland, and a full review of the game.
Now onto the preview.
Among the first things you’ll note when playing the game is some really cool background music and a nifty, professional design, which is a drastic improvement from past EW games. You can then start your own game, choosing which of the save slots to use, and which areas of the world you would like including. Your choices are North America, Mexico, Australia, Europe, Japan, and as well as whether or not MMA will be included. For the purpose of keeping a quick load time, I chose to only include North America. You then get to choose your promotion. Of the fictional promotions available, I chose SWF, which was one of the main two companies in North America. You can also choose whether you’d like to be just the booker, or also the owner. I chose both the booker and owner. Once you continue onto the game, you can then take a look at your roster, calendar, finances, competition, diary (past shows), e-mail, shortlist of workers your interested in, promotion status, economy and industry status, titles, teams, stables, storylines, promotion portrayal (as in sports entertainment, hybrid, hardcore, pure, lucha, etc.) and about a gazillion other areas too, that I’ll let you see for yourself.
When you’re done getting acquainted with your company, the “End Turn” button on the main page will take you to the next day. When I got there, I was informed that I had one unread e-mail. When I checked my e-mail, I learned that Christian Faith, one of my main stars, had received an offer from a rival promotion, HGC. I chose to discard the e-mail, and wait to see what happens. I also wanted to look at his bio, and saw that he was extremely happy. I clicked the “Talk” button, and asked him some questions, such as “Would you like to become a road agent?” and “Is there anyone you’d like to work with.” His answers showed me that he was happy in the company. While looking deeper, I clicked on “View Profile”, and was treated to about every fact I’d ever want to know about this wrestler, including his relationships, title history, match history, overness (which provides his overness in EVERY SINGLE major region and city!), physical condition, and much more. I looked at his contract section, and offered him a new contract, of $7000 a month, which is what he wanted, as well as road expenses being covered. I was then told he would consider the contract and get back to me soon.
From there, I decided to start a new storyline, from the “Storyline” section in “Your Promotion.” This is said to be a huge improvement in the game, so lets see if it is. I made a feud between Squeeky McClean and Christian Faith, two of my more talented workers. The feud originally had an interest level of 79.3%.
Finally, I chose to run a show, which I had scheduled on this day. I pressed the “End Turn” button, which took me to the PM portion of the day, allowing me to book the event. Options here allowed you to book, view your roster, and start the show. I chose to book. I went to book a match, and was shown more match types than I ever knew were possible. However, for the opener, I chose a “Singles – Standard Match” between Angry Gilmore and Lobster Warrior. These are two of my more solid workers. I gave them 16 minutes for the match, to see if they’d pull off a great one. I chose to have Lobster Warrior go over cleanly. Afterwards, I had Gilmore attack Lobster, with Jumbo Shrimp making the save. That sounds funny, so lets see if it works!
I then booked Christian Faith, a very charismatic wrestler with good mic skills to do a 9-minute interview, in which he would partake in some self-promotion.
Up next, I put in a main event match between my two top stars – Enigma and Runaway Train. The match would be a “Satan’s Playground” match, in which Runaway Train would cleanly win. I gave them 15 minutes, as it is a main event match. Later, I can move this match back down the card. Unfortunately, Enigma would not wrestle in such a risky match, and I was informed that TV networks wouldn’t like it, so I switched it to a casket match.
Next, I chose to start the Squeeky vs. Christian feud, as Squeeky would attack Christian backstage in a 3-minute segment.
With 65 minutes left, I chose to have some fun, and added in a Battle Royal. It would have 20 of the men not used already on the show, and would go 61 minutes long! Well, this should be fun! In a great addition, you get to chose each single elimination! This helps continue feuds and other programs you have going. In the end, after eliminating almost everyone, incredibly talented Enforcer Roberts gets the win.
To fill up the last few minutes of TV time, I added in a hype video for Squeeky Clean.
And now, I click “Start the Show” and lets see what happens next.
Our opener, Jumbo Shrimp over Angry Gilmore, received a 65.0% overall rating, with quality of 74.1%, and crowd reaction of 54.4%.
Up next, Christian Faith’s interview completely bombed, as it must have been too long, as notes say he rambled on during the interview. The segment scored a 53.9% rating.
Next, the Squeeky Clean attack on Christian Faith pulls in a solid 71.4% rating.
Our big battle royal came up next, and completely sucked. Uh oh. It pulled in a 31.8% rating, mainly due to awful announcing. My notes for the match said the following:
Black Hat Bailey is getting very poor crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
Enforcer Roberts is getting terrible crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
The crowd weren't happy to see Eric Eisen compete, and were very vocal about it.
Eric Eisen is getting terrible crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
Freddie Datsun is getting terrible crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
Sam Keith is not physically at his best, and this effected his performance.
Warlord Pain is not physically at his best, and this effected his performance.
Warlord Pain is getting very poor crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
Warlord Agony is not physically at his best, and this effected his performance.
Warlord Agony is getting very poor crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
The crowd weren't happy to see The Player compete, and were very vocal about it.
This crowd expect to see gimmicks, which is why The Player got less of a crowd reaction.
Remo is getting very poor crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
The announcing job by Ana Garcia was terrible.
The announcing job by Ric Young was terrible.
That’s not good.
Anyways, the show must go on, and the video up next scored another low, 53.8% rating. Maybe Squeeky has low charisma or something that brought down the feud.
Our main event again dropped the ball, as after some very detailed recapping, it scored a 47.6% rating!!!
I click on “End Show” to end that torturing experience! I guess I’ll need to learn from that one!
The next, I received 5 e-mails! One informed me that our show last night averaged a 45.8% rating. Ouch. Next, three wrestlers demanded meetings, saying they were unhappy with their current push. That should be interesting. Lastly, an email titled “TV Viewing Figures” told us that our show beat the competition, HGC Friday Night Wrestling by about 50,000 viewers. Success!
Well, that concludes my quick preview of TEW! I’m off to play the game some more, because in the half hour I’ve been playing, I got absolutely hooked! You owe it to yourself to try out the game, as this review does not do it justice, and it is so incredibly detailed that no matter what you like about simulators, TEW will have it!
For more information, check out TotalExtremeWarfare.com. The game sells for $34.95 US, and is available through a website download or through a CD shipment. The game will be released on the website tomorrow with a one-day free trial, which I urge everyone to try.
In closing, I’d like to thank Tara Clover, Scott Vibert, and TC Dale for hooking me up with this advanced copy, and of course, Adam Ryland for making this game!
It truly is the next generation of pro wrestling simulators, and if you call your self a wrestling fan, you owe it to yourself to try out this game!
Thanks, have a good week, and enjoy!
Doron Barbalat is also the Torch’s second most popular Velocity reviewer, as he’s that other guy who posts the reviews for some reason even though everyone only reads Dusty’s. He can be reached at doronbarbalat@hotmail.com if you have anything to say.
© Copyright 2004 by TDH Communications Inc.
Curtain Jerker: EXCLUSIVE Preview of Total Extreme Warfare
Doron Barbalat, Torch Team Contributor
Mar 30, 2004, 4:29 pm
In just one day, the day many fans have been waiting for the last nearly nine months will finally arrive.
Tomorrow, Total Extreme Warfare will be released.
TEW is the next step in the Extreme Warfare series. The EW series, created by Adam Ryland, which took wrestling promoter simulators to the next level, has been around for years in the form of freeware, and a few years ago, Extreme Warfare Revenge updated the series both graphically and dramatically in terms of content. After four versions of the game were created, and many other updates, last summer Adam Ryland finally took the game to a new level. After releasing EWR4, Adam announced that he would be joining .400 Studios, and would be professionally creating his next game, Total Extreme Warfare.
With professional programming supplies to use, Adam Ryland’s near yearlong journey to create TEW has come to an end, and the game will be released internationally tomorrow. Adam and the TEW team were kind enough to grant me with an advanced copy of the game, and here as a PWTorch.com exclusive, I present a preview of TEW.
Keep in mind as you read that due to this being a professional game, and that customers will pay it for, real characters could not be “officially” used in the game. This means that the game itself cannot have real life wrestlers or promotions in it due to licensing issues. Never fear, as the game world is fully customizable, and third parties will release “real life” versions of the game at the same time as the game is released tomorrow. However, the update was not available at the time of this preview, so fictional characters and promotions will be used. Also, keep in mind that the advanced copy I received was of the 1-day trial, and as I write this, I am playing the game for the first time. Stay tuned though; as in the few weeks I will present an interview with the creator of TEW, Adam Ryland, and a full review of the game.
Now onto the preview.
Among the first things you’ll note when playing the game is some really cool background music and a nifty, professional design, which is a drastic improvement from past EW games. You can then start your own game, choosing which of the save slots to use, and which areas of the world you would like including. Your choices are North America, Mexico, Australia, Europe, Japan, and as well as whether or not MMA will be included. For the purpose of keeping a quick load time, I chose to only include North America. You then get to choose your promotion. Of the fictional promotions available, I chose SWF, which was one of the main two companies in North America. You can also choose whether you’d like to be just the booker, or also the owner. I chose both the booker and owner. Once you continue onto the game, you can then take a look at your roster, calendar, finances, competition, diary (past shows), e-mail, shortlist of workers your interested in, promotion status, economy and industry status, titles, teams, stables, storylines, promotion portrayal (as in sports entertainment, hybrid, hardcore, pure, lucha, etc.) and about a gazillion other areas too, that I’ll let you see for yourself.
When you’re done getting acquainted with your company, the “End Turn” button on the main page will take you to the next day. When I got there, I was informed that I had one unread e-mail. When I checked my e-mail, I learned that Christian Faith, one of my main stars, had received an offer from a rival promotion, HGC. I chose to discard the e-mail, and wait to see what happens. I also wanted to look at his bio, and saw that he was extremely happy. I clicked the “Talk” button, and asked him some questions, such as “Would you like to become a road agent?” and “Is there anyone you’d like to work with.” His answers showed me that he was happy in the company. While looking deeper, I clicked on “View Profile”, and was treated to about every fact I’d ever want to know about this wrestler, including his relationships, title history, match history, overness (which provides his overness in EVERY SINGLE major region and city!), physical condition, and much more. I looked at his contract section, and offered him a new contract, of $7000 a month, which is what he wanted, as well as road expenses being covered. I was then told he would consider the contract and get back to me soon.
From there, I decided to start a new storyline, from the “Storyline” section in “Your Promotion.” This is said to be a huge improvement in the game, so lets see if it is. I made a feud between Squeeky McClean and Christian Faith, two of my more talented workers. The feud originally had an interest level of 79.3%.
Finally, I chose to run a show, which I had scheduled on this day. I pressed the “End Turn” button, which took me to the PM portion of the day, allowing me to book the event. Options here allowed you to book, view your roster, and start the show. I chose to book. I went to book a match, and was shown more match types than I ever knew were possible. However, for the opener, I chose a “Singles – Standard Match” between Angry Gilmore and Lobster Warrior. These are two of my more solid workers. I gave them 16 minutes for the match, to see if they’d pull off a great one. I chose to have Lobster Warrior go over cleanly. Afterwards, I had Gilmore attack Lobster, with Jumbo Shrimp making the save. That sounds funny, so lets see if it works!
I then booked Christian Faith, a very charismatic wrestler with good mic skills to do a 9-minute interview, in which he would partake in some self-promotion.
Up next, I put in a main event match between my two top stars – Enigma and Runaway Train. The match would be a “Satan’s Playground” match, in which Runaway Train would cleanly win. I gave them 15 minutes, as it is a main event match. Later, I can move this match back down the card. Unfortunately, Enigma would not wrestle in such a risky match, and I was informed that TV networks wouldn’t like it, so I switched it to a casket match.
Next, I chose to start the Squeeky vs. Christian feud, as Squeeky would attack Christian backstage in a 3-minute segment.
With 65 minutes left, I chose to have some fun, and added in a Battle Royal. It would have 20 of the men not used already on the show, and would go 61 minutes long! Well, this should be fun! In a great addition, you get to chose each single elimination! This helps continue feuds and other programs you have going. In the end, after eliminating almost everyone, incredibly talented Enforcer Roberts gets the win.
To fill up the last few minutes of TV time, I added in a hype video for Squeeky Clean.
And now, I click “Start the Show” and lets see what happens next.
Our opener, Jumbo Shrimp over Angry Gilmore, received a 65.0% overall rating, with quality of 74.1%, and crowd reaction of 54.4%.
Up next, Christian Faith’s interview completely bombed, as it must have been too long, as notes say he rambled on during the interview. The segment scored a 53.9% rating.
Next, the Squeeky Clean attack on Christian Faith pulls in a solid 71.4% rating.
Our big battle royal came up next, and completely sucked. Uh oh. It pulled in a 31.8% rating, mainly due to awful announcing. My notes for the match said the following:
Black Hat Bailey is getting very poor crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
Enforcer Roberts is getting terrible crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
The crowd weren't happy to see Eric Eisen compete, and were very vocal about it.
Eric Eisen is getting terrible crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
Freddie Datsun is getting terrible crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
Sam Keith is not physically at his best, and this effected his performance.
Warlord Pain is not physically at his best, and this effected his performance.
Warlord Pain is getting very poor crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
Warlord Agony is not physically at his best, and this effected his performance.
Warlord Agony is getting very poor crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
The crowd weren't happy to see The Player compete, and were very vocal about it.
This crowd expect to see gimmicks, which is why The Player got less of a crowd reaction.
Remo is getting very poor crowd reactions because of his gimmick.
The announcing job by Ana Garcia was terrible.
The announcing job by Ric Young was terrible.
That’s not good.
Anyways, the show must go on, and the video up next scored another low, 53.8% rating. Maybe Squeeky has low charisma or something that brought down the feud.
Our main event again dropped the ball, as after some very detailed recapping, it scored a 47.6% rating!!!
I click on “End Show” to end that torturing experience! I guess I’ll need to learn from that one!
The next, I received 5 e-mails! One informed me that our show last night averaged a 45.8% rating. Ouch. Next, three wrestlers demanded meetings, saying they were unhappy with their current push. That should be interesting. Lastly, an email titled “TV Viewing Figures” told us that our show beat the competition, HGC Friday Night Wrestling by about 50,000 viewers. Success!
Well, that concludes my quick preview of TEW! I’m off to play the game some more, because in the half hour I’ve been playing, I got absolutely hooked! You owe it to yourself to try out the game, as this review does not do it justice, and it is so incredibly detailed that no matter what you like about simulators, TEW will have it!
For more information, check out TotalExtremeWarfare.com. The game sells for $34.95 US, and is available through a website download or through a CD shipment. The game will be released on the website tomorrow with a one-day free trial, which I urge everyone to try.
In closing, I’d like to thank Tara Clover, Scott Vibert, and TC Dale for hooking me up with this advanced copy, and of course, Adam Ryland for making this game!
It truly is the next generation of pro wrestling simulators, and if you call your self a wrestling fan, you owe it to yourself to try out this game!
Thanks, have a good week, and enjoy!
Doron Barbalat is also the Torch’s second most popular Velocity reviewer, as he’s that other guy who posts the reviews for some reason even though everyone only reads Dusty’s. He can be reached at doronbarbalat@hotmail.com if you have anything to say.
© Copyright 2004 by TDH Communications Inc.