WWE 13 preview - First hands-on

For more than a decade, the WWE franchise has been a stalwart pillar for THQ. Last year, the publisher freshened up its digital wrestling by ditching the SmackDown! brand and replacing it with the simplified WWE moniker. 2011's WWE 12 was a step in the right direction creatively, but now the developers are hoping that WWE 13 can be a real revolution for wrestling games. To that end, WWE 13 takes much inspiration from both current stars and a fondly remembered era.

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The path THQ and developer Yuke's are taking the game is exemplified in the two cover stars. On the standard edition is CM Punk, a superstar who, for the past year, has been the voice of the voiceless in the WWE audience. Much like what WWE 13 aims to accomplish, Punk speaks to hardcore fans in a way no wrestler has for some time. The devs are hoping the gameplay updates will do the same for longtime players.

Last year saw the introduction of the impactful Predator engine, and WWE 13 intends to tweak it with increased match drama as its goal. The already-impressive collection of finishers has been expanded thanks to new mid-air versions of each move, alongside enhanced, table-breaking finishers. You could break the announcer's table with any regular move, but wouldn't you rather Triple H drop his opponent through the plywood with a contextually specific Pedigree?

Building up your finisher momentum plays into the other gameplay additions, like the context-sensitive Spectacular Moments. Place your opponent in the right spot, like the corner of some guard rails or atop the ropes, you can pull out an action that will have the announcers saying, "Oh, my God!" Among the moves we pulled off were busting through the guard rail (an homage to a Sheamus/Mark Henry match) and a super heavyweight top rope suplex that broke the ring, just as Big Show and Mark Henry did last year. By the way, the devs have told us the match can continue even if the ring breaks (though they weren't clear on how exactly that could work).

Those aforementioned super heavyweights also showcased another tweak to the engine that improves the physiology of the superstars. Now the wrestlers that break the scale are harder to pick up for standard moves – no more Rey Mysterio body slamming Khali – and their huge bodies have a more realistic bone structure. In general, the builds of the wrestlers were looking less uniform this year – a welcome change, given that the expanding roster needs increased physical diversity to tell the wrestlers apart.

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Past those tweaks to the engine, WWE 13's second cover star points to its most notable franchise addition. As exemplified in special editions adorned by Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWE 13 includes a massive tribute to the Attitude Era. This was a time when characters swore more, did crazier things, and when WWE had some of the highest rated programs on TV. The infusion of attitude is first evident from the WWE 13 roster, which stands as the biggest in THQ history. It features more than 80 wrestlers, including Attitude stars Ken Shamrock, X-Pac, Godfather and the New Age Outlaws. But the classic characters are just the beginning.

Similar to the popular Road to WrestleMania campaigns of the past, Attitude Era is a single-player adventure through the late '90s glory days. You replay matches and recreate moments in the careers of icons like Shawn Michaels, Mankind, and The Rock. We played a chunk of Stone Cold's story, first recreating his transformative match at WrestleMania XIV against Shawn Michaels with Mike Tyson on the sidelines. Like last year's campaigns, the match had important moments to recreate with a well-timed press of a button, such as beating Shawn with a Stone Cold Stunner. Yet it's entirely optional to winning the match, something many wanted in WWE 12's story mode.

Attitude Era is filled with these kinds of little historic moments to give your matches some added spice (and unlock extras). We witnessed that in the second classic match, Stone Cold's first title defense against Dude Love, but they don't all work so well the first go-round. As we focused on pinning Dude Love, the optional objectives popped up, but it was fairly unclear what we were supposed to do since we'd forgotten the important moments of this 14-year-old fight. The descriptions of the objectives were a little vague, leading to some frustration on our part. Hopefully the goals will be clearer in the retail version.

Outside of the late '90s nostalgia and improved engine, it's worth mentioning that WWE 13 boasts an expanded Create-an-Arena mode. Your choices for making a custom ring have greatly expanded: you can now change the size of the arena, the type of audience, intro music, and even customize the entrance areas. The more hardcore contingent of WWE gamers usually appreciate when THQ deepens the creation tools like this, though it remains to be seen if similar expansions are in store for Create-a-Superstar or Create-a-Finisher.

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At this point, we're used to Yuke's and THQ at least incrementally improving WWE games with each new entry, if not outright rebooting the franchise. Mechanically, WWE 13 appears to be about adjustment instead of starting from scratch, but the campaign is a different story entirely. Older fans will no doubt appreciate the nostalgia for the Attitude Era, and if you're the type to pick up WWE games for their single-player, the addition of this likely dense campaign is certainly welcome. Whether you're a fan of CM Punk or Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWE 13 looks to be the most hardcore series entry in sometime.